The equipment-review room was behind the service desk, away from the waiting chairs and the sign promising that customer information was protected. Musa opened the door with a flash drive and a paper folder.
“We found the session metadata,” he said. “Before you see it, do not treat it as a person’s name. It is a trail of devices, times and system connections.”
Amina entered with Rehema. “That is why I asked for it. I do not want a device called Salma simply because we know Salma.”
Musa placed a laptop on the table. The screen showed rows for loan reference, timestamp, device signature, SIM event and session result. The first loan had two entries: an initial request opened on a device identified as Amina-04, followed by the OTP confirmation through the same session. The second loan, opened three days later, carried a different device signature.
Amina pulled out a chair. “Is this KPP-4421?”
“Yes. The session began at 2:14 at night. That phone had appeared on Salma’s account before the first loan.”
Rehema opened the attendance record. “At that time Amina was in a stock count. We have a warehouse entry and a batch scan.”
Musa raised a hand. “The attendance record proves she was at work, not that she did not use another phone.”
“Yes,” Amina said. “That is why we will not call it final proof.”
Musa moved the cursor. “There was a SIM replacement twenty-two minutes before the second-loan session. Salma’s SIM moved to a new device. After the loan, the session closed and the app returned to that device.”
Amina stared at the line. She had wanted an easy answer—Salma did it, and Amina had no part in it—but the system was giving her an answer that required more than anger.
“Where did the SIM replacement happen?” Rehema asked.
“The location is only at ward level, not a full address. A Mtoni service point.”
“And Amina?” Musa turned the page. “The first loan also has another session at 2:09 on the first day. The device signature is Amina-04.”
Amina tightened her fingers around the folder. “Where was I?”
“The location metadata places it near your flat. It is a network estimate, not live GPS.”
Rehema looked at her sister. “Were you in the kitchen?”
Amina closed her eyes. She remembered that night: Salma on the sofa, crying about a supplier and workers’ wages. Amina had held her phone, opened a link and left the screen loading while she went for water. When she returned, Salma told her to press the OTP. Amina could not remember whether she had opened the app again later.
“I was at the flat,” Amina said. “That does not mean I opened the second loan. But it means I cannot deny that the first loan was opened twice without checking the record.”
Musa opened the first-loan log. The first entry was a pre-approval on Salma’s account. The second was a consent event from Amina’s phone. After that came one retry, when the screen returned to the trusted-person language.
“That retry is important,” Musa said. “It did not open a new loan. It placed the consent package into the session again.”
Amina read the times. Each one took her back to the conversation with Salma. “So I saw the interface more than once?”
“Possibly. We do not have a recording of the screen.”
“And the second loan?”
“The second loan has no Amina-04. It has Salma’s device, the new SIM and a session opened from her account.”
Musa took out a printout that could be shared with the complaint mediator. “We can establish that the second loan did not pass through the first-consent session. But we cannot write that Salma held the phone alone every second.”
“Then write what the trail can carry,” Amina said. “The second loan began on a device and SIM associated with Salma. There is no Amina-04 event in that session.”
Rehema added, “And write the first loan separately: Amina entered the OTP, the flow had weak disclosure and the record connects that consent only to the first loan.”
Musa wrote carefully. “Do you want this finding sent to Salma before mediation?”
Amina hesitated. Sharing it gave Salma a chance to explain or twist the evidence. Hiding it would make the review look like a secret attack.
“Send it through the complaint file,” Amina said. “Give Salma a written chance to respond. I do not want the device trail used to convict her without hearing her.”
Musa printed the summary. At the end he wrote: *The second-loan session is technically distinct from the first-loan consent session; the first-loan record contains a repeated opening from Amina’s device.* Amina read it word by word.
“‘Technically distinct’ may look small,” she said.
“But it is what we can prove.”
“Then keep it. Do not reduce accuracy to comfort me.”
She signed the preservation request and asked for the archive reference. Musa explained that the internal system did not give customers a copy of the hash, but the reference number would be placed in the minutes. Amina wrote the reference in her notebook, along with the time the file was released and the name of the officer who supervised the export.
“If you go to mediation,” Musa said, “Salma may say the SIM was used by someone else.”
“Then we will ask who had access. We will not begin with a judgment.”
“And if her account records are not enough?”
“We will stay with the part we have. Truth does not become larger because it favors my side.”
Musa looked at her as though he had not expected the answer. “That will help the minutes.”
As they left, Salma’s message arrived: I heard you asked for the device logs. Do not make me a thief in front of people.
Amina read it and did not answer in anger. She wrote: I asked the trail to separate the first and second loans. I will share the record in mediation, including the part showing that I used the first OTP. Come and answer in writing.
Musa called them back at the door. He had opened another log on the tablet.
“There is something that will require you to be even more careful,” he said. “The first loan was opened twice. The second time came from Amina’s own phone.”
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