Woman recants earlier evidence of editing M-Pesa transaction messages to defraud her landlady

A businesswoman who has been sending edited M-Pesa messages to prove payment of Sh20, 000 rent to deceive her landlady has rescinded her earlier evidence and denied charges of uttering false documents contrary to section 353 of the Penal Code.

Jemima Mueni Mutua had admitted that for seven months between November 2024 and June 2025 she uttered the said forged M-pesa messages to Florence Ngang’a,68, making her believe that the rent payment was settled.

According to police investigations, Mutua was depositing varied amounts of money ranging between one to 20 shillings (Sh1, Sh2 and Sh20) at the end of the month, before amending the transactional messages which she caused Ng’ang’a to accept as genuine payment of Sh20, 000 for her business premises.

She rented Ng’ang’as premises at Mandela Court in Chokaa within Njiru in Nairobi in November last year when she made a first payment of Sh10, 000 then edited the transactional message to read Sh20, 000, and the complainant believed the rent had been paid in full. The fraud went on in the months that followed.

Mutua is alleged to have been depositing Sh2 instead of Sh20, 000 after which she would copy the message and edit adding four zeros before sending the same to Ng’anga to misdirect her landlady that she was depositing the full amount meant for rent.

Ngang’a lost Sh129, 839 out of Mutua’s criminal scheme and the businesswoman admitted that she acted with intent to defraud her landlady of the money being the unpaid rent.

The complainant was going through her M-Pesa messages to confirm deposits made by her tenants paying rent when she came across a deposit of Sh2.

She obtained a bank statement for her account and established that her mischievous tenant had defrauded her of the amount while sending the edited message to prove the payment of rent and reported the matter to police.

Mutua had admitted the charges before Principal Magistrate Renee Kitangwa on Friday last week.

However, when she appeared in court yesterday where the prosecution was to table full evidence in court including the transcripts bearing her edited messages to the complainant, she denied the charges.

The prosecution was also table Ngang’a’s bank statement showing the amounts that Mutua was depositing to the account as read, majority of them indicating she was depositing Sh2 and Sh20 most of the times.

However, Mutua sought a change of plea, and pleaded not guilty so that she can be released on bail to pay the complainant instead of being jailed.

She was released on a Cash bail of Sh20,000.

The matter will be mentioned on July 8, 2025 when the court will set trial of she will not have paid.