Mobile money features in half of reported fraud cases, report says

The Government has called for heightened public vigilance and stronger action against mobile-enabled fraud after an analysis by the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4) found that mobile money was used as the payment method or destination in 51 of 102 reported computer fraud cases reviewed between February and July 2026.

The findings were presented, at the NC4’s 36th meeting, chaired by the Principal Secretary for the State Department for Internal Security and National Administration, Dr. Raymond Omollo.

Mobile money fraud was the largest single fraud scheme, accounting for 19 cases (18.6%).

Investment and forex schemes followed with 16 cases (15.7%), while cryptocurrency schemes accounted for 12 cases (11.8%).

Separately, 23 cases (22.5%) contained explicit telecommunications or SIM-related indicators.

Reporting accelerated from May: 70 cases, or 68.6% of the six-month total, were recorded between May and July, with July reaching the highest monthly volume at 27 cases.

Response priorities presented to the Committee included closer monitoring of high-risk mobile money transactions, faster evidence-preservation and escalation channels with telecommunications providers, stronger intelligence on investment, forex and cryptocurrency schemes, quicker action against fake websites and impersonation accounts, and consistent classification of fraud data.

Omollo warned perpetrators that fraud complaints will be investigated and offenders prosecuted in accordance with the law.

Members of the public are urged to exercise heightened caution when using digital financial services or responding to online investment, cryptocurrency, shopping and recruitment offers.

They should never disclose personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords, one-time passwords (OTPs) or other authentication credentials; should enable multifactor authentication where available and should promptly report suspicious phone numbers, accounts, websites and transactions to service providers, regulators and law enforcement agencies.

The meeting brought together senior Government and security officials, including Douglas Kanja, Inspector-General of the National Police Service (NPS), Jessy Kiveu Maruti, Chief Executive Officer of the Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) and Dr Daniel Mutegi Giti, Chief Executive Officer of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), alongside other NC4 members.

The Kenya Computer Incident Response Team – Coordination Centre (KE-CIRT/CC) reported 2.3 billion cyber events, a 30% decrease from the previous quarter, with ransomware, social engineering, malware, distributed denial-of-service attacks and AI-assisted attacks among the main threats.

KE-CIRT/CC attributed the decline in cyber events to continued collaboration and institutional action on its advisories.

ICTA also briefed the Committee on the defacement of a Government website following exploitation of a critical zero-day vulnerability affecting its content management system.

Digital forensic work is under way to support investigations and prosecutions.

NCIC warned that ethnically charged narratives and organised online mobilisation, increasingly amplified by AI-generated and synthetic media, fake accounts and bots, risk deepening social division and weakening public trust.

The Committee noted that the volume, speed and cross-platform spread of harmful content complicate monitoring and response, while stressing that the Government’s objective is to protect the public space without restricting legitimate political discourse.

Omollo reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to strengthen Kenya’s cybersecurity posture through better institutional coordination, incident response, investigation and prosecution, legal and regulatory reform, protection of critical information infrastructure, public awareness and progressive capacity-building for law
enforcement agencies.

These efforts will support implementation of the Kenya AI Strategy 2025 and remain aligned with national development priorities with the goal of a safe and trusted digital environment for all Kenyans, said Omollo.