Buruburu woman jailed for jumping bail in Sh204 million case
A business lady who jumped bond in a case where she is accused of causing the government to lose over Sh 204 million in customs duty and has been slapped with a three-year jail term.
Claire Marisiana Odimwa who is battling other court cases was jailed by Milimani senior principal magistrate Martha Nanzushi.
She was arrested on April 5, 2023, by police who found her hiding in a closed cabinet at her Buru Buru residence in Nairobi. She has been on the run since 2020.
Her earlier case had proceeded before Ms Nanzushi in absentia and she had been sentenced to two years in jail with or pay a fine of Sh300,000.
The court had issued a warrant for her arrest when she stopped appearing for the case even though her lawyer was present.
A judgement was entered in April 2022 in her absence.
When she was finally arrested and produced before court, the investigating officer explained that the convict had been switching her phone on and off at different locations.
He told the magistrate he traced the call signal to her house in Buruburu.
They stormed it but they could not find her although the call signal showed she was in the building.
“We checked for her in the ceiling but we could not find her, only to find her in a closed cabinet under the staircase at her Buruburu residence,” the investigating officer revealed Ms. Nanzushi.
She was also convicted in a separate case for obtaining Sh 4.9million from Thomas Aul Ewald by pretending she was taking her sick relative abroad for medication.
In another case she is facing, her lawyer Julius Kemboi has told the court that the accused had been sick and that she had lost track of the proceedings after court went virtual during the Covid-19 pandemic
He pleaded with the court to reinstate her bond terms which had been forfeited
In the Sh204million tax evasion case, the accused was remanded in prison custody until April 14, 2023, when she will produced before the trial magistrate Gilbert Shikwe for further directions.
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