A top Kenya Commercial Bank manager is under investigation over a series of fictitious transactions involving unsuspecting siblings and members of his clan, based on evidence exclusively obtained by our team.
Diana Kerubo Oseko has petitioned the internal fraud investigations unit of Kenya Commercial Bank and the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit to probe illegal transactions orchestrated by her elder brother, Joseph Ngala Oseko, who is based at Kencom House, who allegedly forged documents to defraud her of her property which she purchased through her.
In her letter to KCB, dated 23 May 2023 to the Banking Fraud Unit of the bank and copied to the BFIU, she is seeking the attention of the Fraud Investigations Officer over a “fraudulent loan and misrepresentation of my identity” in which she claims that her brother forged loan application documents to suggest the two were husband and wife.
“In 2009 I purchased, through Mr. Joseph Ngala Oseko (your employee), the property under the title […]situated at Ole Shapara Avenue, South C, Nairobi; which property, among others, has been the premise of long-standing strain on our relationship with my brother between 2013 and now,” reads part of the letter obtained by our team.
“Sometime in 2019, I learned that Mr. Joseph Ngala Oseko fraudulently obtained an undisclosed loan amount against the said property through falsified documents; which loan I was never aware of until 2019 when my brother told me that the property could not be transferred to my name because a loan he took against it had not been cleared.”
“I have since learned that the loan application documents portrayed me inappropriately, suggesting I was either a trustee or his wife, which misrepresentation was done so as to fraudulently get the loan approved. I never authorized the use of my details for the loan application and did not sign anything that was presented purportedly from me.
In the letter, Ms. Oseko asserts that “this fraud was facilitated and succeeded because Mr. Joseph Ngala Oseko is a senior manager with your bank, who should be investigated and brought to account for abuse of his position.”
“The purpose of this letter is to formally petition your internal banking systems to investigate this fraud with a view to maintaining and protecting the integrity of Kenya Commercial Bank which stands to suffer immense credibility dent in the face of the public if this conduct by Mr. Joseph Ngala Oseko is not stopped.”
Ms. Oseko says the brother (Joseph) has defrauded her of her South C house and another property in the Embakasi estate, both valued at more than KSh30,000,000.
From the documents in our possession, it is understood that Joseph was forced to relinquish other properties to his sisters after they threatened to raise the matter with KCB in 2013.
Our team is aware that Mr. Joseph Ngala Oseko is also under pressure from his family following the death of his mother – Mrs. Yunia Bochaberi Oseko – who died in 2020 but her body has remained at Umash Funeral Home since then. His elder brother Patrick Ondieki Ngala had earlier written to KCB seeking their intervention to get him to release “the money contributed for the same purpose which has not been spent”.
“All efforts to have my mother’s remains interred have been thwarted by (my brother) Joseph Ngala Oseko, who has used all manner of unscrupulous, krass means, including but not limited to, blackmail, intimidation and abuse of his position as a Senior Manager with Kenya Commercial Bank; a situation which is no longer tenable as my mother’s stay at Umash Funeral Home is a continuously traumatizing ordeal,” reads the letter dated 15 May 2023.
In the letter, the senior Oseko is also seeking the attention of the public, including human rights organizations to intervene so that their mother gets justice.
“I call upon the Kenya Human Rights Commission to urgently take up this matter with a view to having me and my family have justice for our mother, whose rights have been grossly violated (in death) by the (in)actions I have enumerated and which must forthwith be addressed so as to have her Rest in Peace.
“Other human rights organizations are hereby of this injustice on my family by one of us, who views himself as invincible due to his privileged position as a Senior Manager of Kenya Commercial Bank.”
It is understood that Joseph Ngala Oseko has sued journalist Milton Nyakundi for defamation, a suit that is pending before the Milimani Civil Court.
“It is true that I was sued over this matter and my lawyers are dealing with it but the most important thing for me right now is to get justice for the late Mama Yunia Bochaberi,” Nyakundi was quoted by Kurunzi News.
“You cannot mistreat a parent that way and I am ready to face him head-on because all I am asking of him is to stop the shenanigans and get his mother laid to rest.
“That old lady being detained in the morgue by his unjust actions is also a member of the community, an auntie, a sister, a grandmother, and those people deserve to get closure by having her laid to rest without any further delay.”
His mother’s body is still lying at Umash Funeral Home as the family mobilizes resources to clear the mortuary bill which is currently standing at KSh1,592,000.
“[…] It is not my family’s wish to have my mother’s remains interred for all this while and it is unbecoming, immoral, and illegal to have (my brother) Joseph Ngala Oseko conduct himself as though it is his prerogative and the rest of us are beholden to him,” writes Ondieki Oseko.
“It is difficult but we plead with well-wishers to help us because my brother took money from people and he has now gone into hiding, leaving us helpless, those who feel the pain of a mother are welcome to help us,” pleads Ondieki Oseko, adding that he will do everything to ensure his brother Joseph is brought to book over this issue.
“My brother’s continued non-declaration and surrender of the monies that he received in the name of offsetting my mother’s funeral expenses amounts to obtaining money by false pretense which is a criminal offense for which he should be brought to justice.”