Brian Rono Kiprotich who used suspended Central Police Station OCS Samson Talaam’s phone to extort money from his family, lawyers and friends while the police boss was in custody has been denied bail.
Rono was today charged with computer fraud at Milimani Law Court where Magistrate Benmark Ekhubi ordered that he be remanded at the Industrial Area Prison until September 12,2025.
This the Magistrate said will allow the DCI who are probing how the OCS’s SIM card and ID, held by IPOA, ended up in the hands of the accused to conclude their investigations.
The incident is however unearthing a troubling case of cybercrime and institutional negligence where the accused got access to Talaam’s phone while the device is still in the custody of investigators, and using it to con unsuspecting Kenyans.
Rono who last month appeared before Magistrate Caroline Mugo, is said to be the prime suspect at the centre of a SIM swap scheme using a phone belonging to Talaam, currently under investigation by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa).
According to an application filed by DCI in court seeking to continue holding the suspect for more days, the phone, a TECNO CLA5 with a SIM card, had been seized by Ipoa detectives from the OCS on June 15, 2025, as an exhibit in a separate ongoing probe over the murder of blogger Albert Ojwang’ in police cells.
But just a day after its seizure, it was allegedly used by unknown persons to solicit money from Talaam’s lawyers, including Cliff Ombeta and his close family members, through distress messages claiming the officer was in need of help.
What’s shocking is that the phone was supposedly in Ipoa’s secure custody the entire time.
Following the fraudulent messages, Talaam’s lawyer Danstan Omari told the court that the impersonation went far enough to trick even senior advocates into believing Talaam was in danger.
“Your honour, the number belonging to Chief Inspector Talaam was used to contact several people, including my colleague Cliff Ombeta, asking for Sh80,000. The caller claimed that Talaam was in trouble and needed money urgently,” Omari testified.
The court was told Talaam’s family members also received similar distressing messages, warning of a wider scheme to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans.
So far, the DCI has opened investigations into senior officials of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to establish how the suspect accessed the phone.
