Micheline Uwababyyi
Eddy Kwizera
Milimani chief magistrate Lucas Onyina
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)
Micheline Uwababyyi who was last week arrested for conspiring to murder her Swiss national boyfriend in Nairobi has been charged with the offense.
Antoinette Uwineza, balias Micheline Uwababyyi, who appeared before Milimani chief magistrate Lucas Onyina pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and preparation to commit a felony. She is jointly charged alongside her brother Eddy Kwizera who has also denied the charges against him.
Uwababyyi was in November 2018 sentenced to life in jail after being found guilty of killing her love rival but later freed by the Court of Appeal was on December 31, 2023, arrested by undercover Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives from Central Nairobi after she had lured the foreigner into the country on the pretext of selling him gold.
The prosecution alleges that on December 30, 2023, at an unknown place within Nairobi county, the two, with others not before the court, conspired to commit a felony, namely the murder of one Helbling Guico Paul, with intent to steal from him money and his other valuables.
The second count states that on the same date at Brookside area in Westlands, within Nairobi county, jointly with others not before the court, being within their place of abode, had articles for use in the course of committing murder, namely two kitchen knives, one liter of chloride Exide battery acid, two black polythene paper bags, four surgical hand gloves and six tablets of Nitrest 10mg medicine.
However, the accused persons who were represented by lawyer John Swaka were each released on cash bail of 200,000 with one contact person pending the mention of the case on January 27. It is said that police officers posing as hitmen for hire on the material managed to arrest the woman and her brother as they plotted to kill her Swiss boyfriend before stealing his money.
According to the police, the complainant from Switzerland had arrived in Nairobi on December 26 and was booked to a hotel in Westlands and was to check out on December 31, 2023. It is said that On December 29, 2023, the woman aged 43 who according to police stayed at Ngara approached a hit man seeking help to eliminate the foreigner.
The man who had been approached got jittery and approached the police. An undercover team of two was arranged for the mission and met the woman in Ngara on December 30 to plan the way forward. According to police, the woman told them the Swiss man had 850 Euros. She informed them that before the foreigner is killed he must transfer all the money to her account. She also produced a bank statement showing that from March 17, 2023, to June 10, 2023, she received Sh9.2 million from the said foreigner.
After deliberations, the undercover officers agreed with the lady on the terms of engagement which included equal sharing of the money realized after the murder of the foreigner. The suspect requested the female undercover officer to help her with a fake photo to make a fake identity card that would be used to rent an apartment where the mission would be carried out.
The fake identity card was made with a different name. On December 30 night, the female undercover officers accompanied by the suspect and his brother went to Westlands to hire an apartment and thereafter the suspect invited the foreigner for dinner in the said house.
As they were proceeding to the said house other DCI officers who were waiting pounced on the suspects and arrested them.
A search was conducted in her house in Ngara but nothing was found, an indication that she had either planned to shift from the house or leave the country.
Woman was on November 1, 2018, imprisoned for life by High Court Judge Jessie Lesiit after the court ruled that she had killed her compatriot, Winnie Uwambaye together with her seven-month-old baby, over a boyfriend of European descent.
Judge Lesiit ruled that the accused deliberately killed her friend and her seven-month-old baby “with malice and in a brutal manner”.
However, in September 2020, the Court of Appeal reversed the ruling, saying Uwineza’s sentencing was arrived at without the prosecution proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the convict killed Uwambaye. Uwambaye’s lifeless body was on February 16, 2013, found at Saharan Lodge on Duruma Road in Nairobi. The 42-year-old had been strangled with a polythene bag, and her body wrapped in a bed sheet.
Uwineza was arrested in Kayole while using the deceased’s phone. She was arrested together with her male friend who was later acquitted over lack of evidence. Three Appellate court judges -Martha Koome, Hannah Okwengu, and Fatuma Sichale -however, overturned the lower court’s ruling, saying: “The circumstantial evidence relied upon to convict Antoinette did not meet the required standards as it neither led irresistibly to her guilt nor was it compatible with her innocence.”
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