Granny, 80, charged with managing property owned by Al Shabaab
A grandmother aged 80 has been charged with collecting rent from a property developed by a suspected member of Al Shabaab terror group based in Somalia and wiring it to Kismayu.
Rose Awinja Ondumu denied two charges of dealing with property owned by a terrorist group and collecting of funds for the benefit of the terrorists.
The accused also denied that in a span of four years at Umoja Estate Nairobi within Nairobi County she knowingly dealt directly with a property owned by Mr Anwar Yogan Mwok, a member of Al Shabaab terrorist group.
The prosecution said the accused has been overseeing a house at Nasra Gardens Estate plot number 157/826 Zone B within Umoja II.
The property neighbours Mama Lucy Hospital which is built on a property which has been the subject of a case that has been pending in court for the last 45 years.
The dispute of ownership of some 818 acres valued at more than Sh5billion pits Kiambu Dandora Farmers Company Limited (KDFC) and Dandora Housing Schemes Limited (DHSL) whose director is one Mr Cornelius Waithaka.
COLLECTING RENT
DHSL has been battling to repossess its land which it claims has been grabbed by powerful people in the society.
Its on this parcel of land where Nasra Gardens Estate has been developed with palatial houses built on it, the Milimani Law Courts chief magistrate Francis Andayi heard.
The second charge against the grandmother is that she has been collecting funds for the benefit of a terrorist involved in the commission of terrorists acts contrary to Section 5 (b) of the prevention of terrorism Act 2012.
She denied that on December 1, 2013 and March 15, 2017 at Umoja Estate she collected house rent knowing that such funds would be used to benefit Mr Mwok a member of a Al Shabaab terrorist group holed up in Somalia.
Awinja applied to be released on bond saying she is sickly and that she is on constant medication.
The prosecution opposed her release on bond but Mr Andayi directed that she deposits a cash bail of Sh500,000 until April 18, 2017 when her trial begins.
