{"id":4158,"date":"2025-11-03T11:11:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2025-11-10T11:19:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:19:01","slug":"fresh-exodus-at-absa-bank-deepens-crisis-in-sh1-5-billion-data-breach-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/2025\/11\/03\/fresh-exodus-at-absa-bank-deepens-crisis-in-sh1-5-billion-data-breach-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Exodus at Absa Bank Deepens Crisis in Sh1.5 Billion Data Breach Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Absa Bank has been dealt yet another major blow after\u00a0 a key witness in the Sh1.5 billion compensation suit by transport firm New Mega Africa<\/a> resigned to join a rival bank.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\nSophie Omondi resigned from the bank and is headed to one of the competitor Banks as the Relationship Manager based in Mombasa.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nShe was nominated as the key witnesses alongside Corporate Credit Manager Supporting Business Banking\u00a0 Wyclife Makori who is reportedly planning to resign as well after the Bank backtracked on deal they had entered into to shield the Bank against legal liability in consideration for a promotion and transfer to the head office.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis is\u00a0 a continuation of a series of resignations experienced at the bank that has been in the spotlight for bad reasons in the past three years; with the bank embroiled in\u00a0 the compensation suit over data breach.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nHead of SME Susan Situma had previously\u00a0 tendered her resignation after she differed with\u00a0 Elizabeth Wasuna on how SME clients were being treated by the bank.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nBut the biggest dilemma for the bank is how to navigate the court battle with New Mega Africa with the case set to resume on 17th and 18th of November,2025.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSophie and Makori are vital for the bank in the case given the fact that Makori was specifically accused of colluding with senior officials at the bank to share information about New Mega Africa to third parties, the Bank opted to introduce Sophie as a ploy to cover up for Makori.\r\n\r\n \r\n

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From left to right Wycliffe Makori, David, Joseph Wafubwa, Sophie Omondi and a coallegue during a past Absa party at an eatery in Nyali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n \r\n\r\nSophie has continuously protested her inclusion into the matter citing the fact that she was never the primary relationship manager for New Mega Africa and that Makori was the one who was at the center of all the mess that New Mega Africa was got in by Absa.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nShe claims that the claimant never mentioned her anywhere in their accusations against the bank for soliciting money, leakage of confidential information,\u00a0 blackmail etc.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nShe told the Bank she was not willing to subject her professional reputation at the expense of the Bank\u2019s negligence and unethical business culture which has gone out of control in Coast Region.\r\n\r\n \r\n
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Sophie Omondi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Bank has abated numerous unethical conducts from sexual offers to clients for business (perfected in Nyali Branch), booking of fictitious loans in consideration for kickbacks from clients with full disclosure of the consequences to clients,\u00a0 sale of client confidential financial information to business rivals, KRA, spouses\/girlfriends,\u00a0 scammers and cybercrime hitmen and lately one of the staff members who opted to resign Dan Oluoch Olale who quickly resigned after an old lady client leaving in the diaspora wrote to the Bank alleging that Dan had conned her Shs 19 million having lied to her that he would open a wealth management account for her to collect rent from her properties in Nairobi.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nDan with full knowledge of the Branch Manager Serah Muthui opened a separate account in Equity Bank without the client\u2019s knowledge and transferred the rental collections there.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhen the client raised the complaint,\u00a0 Sarah Muthui whose brother Moses Muthui initiated a transfer of Dan from Nyali Branch to Diani Branch to protect herself.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe rot in Absa Bank<\/a> is so bad that it\u2019s sister Company Absa Life Assurance Kenya Ltd is being considered for sale or closure after it became apparent that 80% of the life insurance policies are being cancelled by clients after 3 years citing cases of them being misadvised by the staff members who are motivated to sell unethically owing to hefty insurance brokerage commissions that they earn when they sell the insurance policy as against selling bank products.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nRead also: Central Bank Cuts Lending Rate to 9.25% to Ease Loan Acquisition by Kenyans<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe syndicate is so bad that regional managers working in cahoots with Branch Managers have a list of all customers with bank balances above Shs 5 million which they share with specific sales people to misadvise customers to sign up for insurance policies disguised as wealth management products promising returns as high as 20%. Clients do not get policy statements thereafter only to learn later that they were sold insurance.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Branch managers demand 70% of all commissions earned to be given to them failure to which the initiate disciplinary and termination against employees. The regional managers are in turn given 40%. Nyali Branch is notorious for this.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nOn the New Mega Africa Ltd matter, things could be intense given the High Court in Mombasa had previously\u00a0 allowed a former employee to file a witness statement in the Sh1.5 billion suit.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nJustice Julius K. Ng’arng’ar found no grounds to block Evans Wekesa Murumba to file his witness statement.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe judge indicated the weight of Murumba\u2019s statement and found no grounds to declare it irrelevant.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMr. Murumba served as the Coast Region Head of Commercial Affairs for Absa bank and was the boss to Wycliffe makori and Sophie Omondi.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMurumba, through his lawyers had initially made an application dated 6th December, 2023 where he explained that his image stands to be damaged by virtue of the court proceedings.\r\n\r\n \r\n
“There is inherent risk that the court may proceed with the suit without the applicant\/ intended interest party being heard despite being mentioned adversely in the main suit,” the application reads.\r\n\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n\r\nHe claimed that the case may have an effect in his civic and political life.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIn the affidavit, Murumba disclosed that he had an employment contract with the bank\u00a0 between April 2019 to June 2022 when tendered his resignation to venture into politics.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nHis work included overseeing the Bank\/ Client relationship with clients where he admits he\u00a0 had several engagements with New Mega Africa\u00a0 and the bank\u2019s senior officials at the Coast.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nHis affidavit also links Wycliffe Makori for working with other employees to manipulate and swindle clients.\r\n\r\n \r\n
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Wycklyffe Makori<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n \r\n\r\nA separate witness account from\u00a0 New Mega Africa also linked Makori and other employees for having received money in form of bribes to facilitate release of loans applied.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe longstanding battle saw the\u00a0 Court of Appeal refuse to set up a three judge bench to hear the bank\u2019s application seeking to overturn an injunction stopping it from auctioning property belonging to New Mega Africa.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAbsa bank has for long been\u00a0 hit by similar issues of data breach leading to the loss of funds and customer confidentiality.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe behavior saw the bank’s hierarchy\u00a0 sack Nkrumah Road\u00a0 Branch manager Thomas Macharia Mwangi.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis development follows an earlier incident involving another employee, identified as Serah Muthui, who was accused earlier this year of alleged sex related scandals.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAccording to a detailed letter dated February 14, 2024, and received at the Managing Director\u2019s office on the same day, Elizabeth Mulwa Kinyanjui accused Serah of destroying her marriage and allegedly taking away her belongings while she was away.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSerah was reportedly overheard during one of the company’s events,making controversial remarks about her former colleagues, claiming that the recently resigned staff were \u201clazy and failed to use their bodies and money wisely.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nShe went on to allegedly advise her fellow employees to \u201cbe smarter, use whatever means necessary even witchcraft or bribery of senior management if they want to survive.\u201d. a source narrated\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSubsequently,the\u00a0 Employment and Labour Relations Court in Mombasa ordered the bank\u00a0 to pay Thomas Macharia Mwangi Ksh. 2,300,000 in unpaid bonuses for the year 2022.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe court also mandated Absa to implement a 13% salary increment for Mr Macharia from January to May 2023, as per an earlier agreement, for his role as Nkrumah branch manager.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe suspension stemmed from allegations of Mr Macharia\u2019s involvement in irregular overdraft facilities at the Nkrumah Road branch, an action reportedly spearheaded by a junior officer suspected of fraud and data breaches involving client information.\r\n\r\n \r\n
\"\"<\/figure>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Nairobi court on November 9, 2022 issued a decree, ordering the bank to pay the transport firm billions for allegedly leaking confidential information to third parties, causing the company’s credit ratings to suffer.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe case took\u00a0 a new twist after the court agreed to admit an application by Evans Murumba.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIn the suit, Wycliffe Makori is specifically blamed\u00a0 for working with other employees to share its details with a Kenya National Highways Authority officer identified as Jared Makori.\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absa Bank has been dealt yet another major blow after\u00a0 a key witness in the Sh1.5 billion compensation suit by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/download-2025-11-10T141610.125.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}