Pastor Ng'ang'a: How I Lost More Than Ksh600K In Offerings To SIM Swap Gang

Neno Evangelism Center founder Pastor James Ng’ang’a on Thursday, February 15 revealed how he lost close to Ksh630,000 to fraudsters using the sim swap trick to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans.

Addressing his congregants via a video shared online, the controversial pastor revealed that the fraudsters cleaned out his SIM cards registered under different churches to collect offerings. 

He revealed how in the first incident, an unknown individual paid a visit to a telco's regional customer care outlet in Nakuru. Once there, they swapped the first SIM card registered under Pastor Ng'ang'a and withdrew Ksh200,000.

“I was contacted by the Jerusalem church and they informed me that the phone was not working, so I offered to visit the service provider’s office and sort the issue, however, the one registered for this church stopped working as well,” he stated. 

When he escalated the matter with customer care, he was informed that someone swapped numbers for the two registered lines in two days at the Nakuru shop.

He pinned the blame on the attendant for allegedly failing to confirm the particulars on his National Identification (ID) card in such instances, which would have prevented the SIM swap fraud from happening in the first place.

Ng'ang'a then encouraged the church to stay strong even in the toughest of moments, remarking that God is always in control.

“Seasons come and go. Do your work in all seasons, and leave the rest to God,” he stated during one of his daily sermons. 

The telco, which he accused of allowing the SIM swap to happen to him, was yet to issue an official comment on the matter by the time of publishing this article.

The incident bore memories of the infamous Mulot SIM swap gang with the mastermind of the Mulot syndicate, David Mutai alias Hillary Langat Matindwet, arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after going on the run for several days before his arrest by officers on bank duties at a local bank in Kericho.

Mutai was spotted by members of the public in the town who went after him.

"His attempt to flee was immediately thwarted by the youthful young men of athletic height who went after him in long strides, bringing him down with a heavy thud after a few metres. 

"The immediate response by the officers on guard duties saved Matindwet’s skin from the irate mob that almost went for his jugular in exasperation," narrated the DCI in part.

Mutai's arrest came two days after detectives based at the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) unmasked his identity, following numerous complaints from members of the public who had been defrauded by the suspect and his gang.

He was labelled as a dangerous criminal who previously served time in prison and had several cases and warrants of arrest hanging around his neck over the SIM swap ordeal.