The dusty streets of Mulot—once the undisputed capital of Kenya’s mobile money underground—are growing uncharacteristically quiet. But do not mistake silence for safety. The digital pickpockets who turned this small border town between Bomet and Narok into a cybercrime hub haven't quit; they have simply packed their bags. Fleeing a relentless dragnet by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the infamous “Mulot Team” has shifted its base of operations to major urban centers, bringing their high-tech heist directly to your doorstep.

This migration marks a dangerous evolution in Kenya’s war on cyber fraud. For years, detectives knew exactly where to look when a grandmother in Kakamega lost her pension to a “customer care” imposter. Now, that signal could be pinging from a bedsitter in Kiambu, a high-rise in Mombasa, or a backstreet in Nakuru. The enemy is no longer just in the Rift Valley; they are likely your neighbors.

The Great Dispersion

Intelligence reports seen by Streamline News confirm that the syndicate has fractured into smaller, autonomous cells. Following a series of high-profile raids in late 2025—including the November 6 bust that netted six suspects with over 2,400 stolen IDs and 3,000 SIM cards—the kingpins realized their centralization was a liability.

“Following regular crackdowns in Mulot, the fraudsters have scattered to evade police dragnets,” a senior DCI detective revealed on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We are now tracing active cells in Nakuru, Eldoret, Nairobi, Nyahururu, and even as far as Kisii.”

This decentralization strategy makes the network harder to decapitate. Instead of a single command center, the syndicate now operates like a franchise:

• The ‘Trainers’: Veteran swappers are charging fees to train university dropouts in the dark arts of social engineering and SIM registration bypass.
• The ‘Runners’: Boda boda riders and students are recruited to act as agents, physically moving stolen funds or registering lines to avoid linking the ‘dons’ to the crime.
• The ‘Hosts’: Safe houses in middle-class estates like Ruiru and Syokimau are being used to house the tech infrastructure, blending in with the urban noise.

A Multi-Billion Shilling Headache

The economic impact of this shift is staggering. While global cybercrime is often discussed in abstract billions, for the average Kenyan, the loss is visceral and immediate. A teacher losing KES 50,000 in a SIM swap isn't just a statistic; it is a term’s worth of school fees gone in seconds.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has remained bullish, citing the government's success in “dismantling” the original Mulot network. Yet, the data suggests a game of whack-a-mole. In February 2025 alone, detectives arrested seven suspects in Ruiru who had stupefied a victim and swept KES 250,000 from his accounts—proof that the Mulot methodology has successfully been exported to the capital.

“We will continue striking their hideouts, regardless of where they move,” vowed Rift Valley Regional Commissioner Dr. Abdi Hassan. But as the syndicate adopts sophisticated identity theft techniques—using fraudulently generated ID numbers and forged police abstracts—the burden of vigilance has shifted squarely onto the citizen.

The era of regarding Mulot as a distant problem is over. The fraudsters have realized that to survive, they must blend in. Today, the threat isn't a stranger calling from a remote border town; it is a sophisticated operation running quietly from the apartment next door.