80-year old granny charged with Al Shabaab terror links in Umoja Estate

dennis kibet

March 16, 2017 8:54 AM

Rose Awinja Ondumu was charged with collecting rent for four years from a property in the City’s Umoja Estate developed by a leading suspected Al Shabaab member and wiring it to Kismayu in Somalia.

An 80-year-old grandmother has been charged before a Nairobi Court after being linked with the Al Shabaab terror group based in Somalia.

Awinja however denied that she knowingly dealt directly with a property owned by Mr Anwar Yogan Mwok, a member of Al Shabaab terrorist group.

The prosecution argued that the grandmother 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.

The plot which neighbours Mama Lucy Hospital is also built on a property which has been the subject of a case that has been pending in court for the last 45 years.

Contested land

According to a local daily, 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.

However, Awinja pleaded to released on bond saying that she was unwell and is currently under medication.

The prosecution opposed her release on bond but the judge directed that she deposits a cash bail of Sh500, 000.

The case will be heard on April 18.

Earlier this month, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers on a mission in Somalia gunned down 57 heavily armed gunmen, who they suspect to be affiliated to Al Shabaab.

KDF went to Somalia in October 2011 on a mission to quell the then widespread abductions in an arson extended to Kenya by the militia.

Kenya's incursion into southern Somalia started after the kidnapping of two Spanish women, at the Dadaab refugee camp. The abductions were carried out by the militants who the troops said planned to push away under the Operation Linda Nchi.

dennis kibet