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By Victoria Fakiya
Lagos, Nigeria: A Kenyan fintech has gone from helping people buy phones and appliances in installments to having two of its directors arrested over an alleged KSh 31.2 million (about $242,000) theft.
On September 2, 2026, per TechCabal, detectives from Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested Martin Kariuki Maina and Johnson Gituma Mwangi, directors of Flexitech Group, in Nairobi’s Roysambu area. The arrests followed a complaint from a major retail chain, which alleges that money collected from customers through the company was not remitted.
According to the DCI, said the two directors were acting as agents for the retailer and had received KSh 31,213,700.95 from customers who had bought and collected products from different branches.
Investigators allege that, together with other suspects who are still at large, the money was diverted for their own use. The two are being processed ahead of arraignment at the Milimani Law Courts, where they are expected to face charges of stealing by agent. Importantly, these are allegations at this stage, not convictions.
If you’re wondering why this matters, FlexPay isn’t some random payment app sitting on the sidelines of retail. The company built its business around helping consumers pay for products gradually rather than coughing up the full amount upfront.
Its model has evolved into what it calls “Save Now, Buy Later”, where customers save towards products through merchants rather than taking on interest-bearing credit. Its current terms say Flexpay handles payment processing, reconciliation, record-keeping and customer savings balances, which makes trust around money particularly important.
The company has actually been around for more than a decade. FlexPay was founded in the mid-2010s and had already received backing from programmes including Techstars and Google LaunchPad. By September 2023,
TechCrunch reported that it had grown its merchant network to about 600 businesses, with plans to expand its savings products beyond retail into areas such as travel and education.
The company also raised funding and participated in programmes including the Ecobank Fintech Challenge and Safaricom Spark Accelerator.
And that history makes the arrest particularly significant. FlexPay has spent years positioning itself around financial inclusion and giving people a debt-free alternative to traditional buy now, pay later products.
Now, two of the company’s directors are at the centre of a police investigation involving money that was supposed to reach a retail partner. The DCI says investigations are still ongoing and other people connected to the alleged theft are being sought, so the next major development will likely come when the suspects appear in court and more details about the retailer, the transactions and the alleged diversion emerge.
