NAIROBI, April 23, 2026 — Explosive court evidence has ripped open one of Kenya’s most damning corporate scandals, placing popular sports betting platform OdiBets and its senior director Andrew Aligula squarely in the crosshairs of allegations that the company built its meteoric rise by feasting on stolen personal data belonging to nearly 30 million Kenyans.
Forensic records now before the Nairobi High Court paint a chilling picture of how rogue Safaricom insiders allegedly siphoned intimate details from the telecom giant’s systems between June 2018 and May 2019, handing over a treasure trove that included full names, national identity card numbers, passport and military identification details, M-Pesa transaction histories, precise gambling patterns, total betting amounts, device IMEI numbers, dual SIM configurations and geolocation data mapped down to county and locality levels.
The data, according to WhatsApp exchanges recovered from the phones of former Safaricom employees Simon Billy Kinuthia and Brian Wamatu Njoroge, was not a one-off leak but a calculated, ongoing operation. Batches of 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 records were allegedly sliced, diced and sold in negotiated chunks, with sample datasets shared to entice buyers before full payment unlocked the complete files. Among the betting firms explicitly named in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations forensic report as recipients of this illicit haul is OdiBets, the platform operated by Kareco Holdings Limited.
Court documents reviewed by multiple outlets, including the detailed investigation published yesterday by Nyakundi Report, leave little doubt about the devastating intent behind the acquisition. The stolen information went far beyond mere contact lists. It formed a sophisticated behavioural and financial profiling machine, allowing operators to zero in on Kenyans already deep in gambling territory, those showing signs of vulnerability through erratic M-Pesa flows or repeated betting losses, and those statistically primed to keep chasing the next big win even after devastating setbacks.
OdiBets, launched in 2018 at the very moment the data extraction began, used the M-Pesa ecosystem as its exclusive payment gateway. The timing was no coincidence. With Safaricom subscriber data in hand, the company could target users with laser precision, transforming raw personal information into a weaponised marketing engine that propelled it from startup to one of Kenya’s most recognisable betting brands.
At the heart of the revelations stands Andrew Aligula, repeatedly referenced in media-linked ownership and operational accounts as a senior executive deeply involved in Kareco Holdings’ internal decision-making, expansion strategy and day-to-day oversight. Once described publicly as the platform’s COO in industry interviews, Aligula has been portrayed in some circles as a key figure steering the firm’s aggressive growth across Kenya and into regional markets including Ghana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, where OdiBets claims a combined user base exceeding 10 million.
Kareco Holdings itself maintains a Parklands headquarters and operates under a licence from the Betting Control and Licensing Board, now transitioning under the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya following the Gambling Control Act 2025. Publicly, the company projects an image of responsible gaming, complete with addiction warnings and self-management tools. Yet the court evidence tells a far darker story, one in which targeted acquisition allegedly exploited the very vulnerabilities the firm claims to guard against.
The human cost is already devastatingly clear. Kenya remains the most gambling-saturated nation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a GeoPoll survey showing 83.9 per cent participation rates, the highest in the region. Close to 80 per cent of individuals seeking psychiatric care in public health facilities are now linked to problem or pathological gambling, according to data cited in the ongoing petition. Tragic cases abound: small-scale trader Susan Njeri from Kakamega took her own life in October 2024 after losing Sh60,000 on betting platforms, while a first-class honours graduate from Maasai Mara University reportedly lost Sh900,000 in a single night before ending his life. Studies in peri-urban areas like Kajiado County reveal young men turning to betting as a desperate economic coping mechanism, only to spiral into regret, mental deterioration and family breakdown.
A constitutional petition filed by Augustine Onalo on behalf of 11.5 million affected Safaricom subscribers, represented by Mola Kimosop Advocates, seeks Sh1.5 million in damages per victim from the telecom giant, a claim that could run into trillions of shillings. While the May 13 judgment focuses primarily on Safaricom’s liability, the forensic record’s explicit naming of OdiBets as a buyer of the stolen data has opened a separate and potentially explosive front.
Under the Data Protection Act 2019, which came into force shortly after the breach but during the period OdiBets is accused of continuing to use the datasets, the company faces administrative fines of up to Sh5 million or one per cent of annual turnover, whichever is lower. The Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act criminalises the knowing receipt and commercial exploitation of data obtained through unauthorised access, opening the door to possible custodial sentences for directors and officers. The Gambling Regulatory Authority holds sweeping powers to suspend or revoke licences where operators are found to have relied on unlawfully obtained information.
Yet despite the weight of the forensic evidence, which has sat with the DCI since 2019, neither the Directorate of Criminal Investigations nor the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has, to date, pursued criminal charges or formal probes against the betting firms named as buyers. The Betting Control and Licensing Board has remained equally silent on OdiBets’ alleged role.
OdiBets has built its brand on flashy marketing campaigns, matatu advertisements, free bets and data-bundle incentives under the hashtag #BetExtraODInary, targeting young, often unemployed or underemployed men who see betting as a pathway out of economic hardship rather than mere entertainment. Independent reviews have criticised the platform’s responsible gambling features as largely reactive, lacking robust in-app spending limits or automatic time-out prompts common in more tightly regulated markets.
As the High Court prepares to rule next month, the case threatens to expose not just individual wrongdoing but a systemic failure that allowed stolen Kenyan data to power an entire industry’s expansion while regulators looked the other way. For millions of ordinary citizens whose private financial lives and gambling habits were commodified without consent, the betrayal runs deep.
The Star reached out to OdiBets and Andrew Aligula for comment but had not received a response by press time. Kareco Holdings continues to operate normally, its public posture one of compliance and community engagement through sports sponsorships.
What emerges from the court files is a story of breathtaking opportunism: how a handful of insiders and their alleged commercial partners allegedly turned the most intimate digital footprints of an entire nation into the foundation of a betting empire, one vulnerable Kenyan at a time. The judgment on May 13 may finally force the long-overdue reckoning.
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