She made a clever hideout in her house that police couldn't spot for 3 years, now she's in prison
A woman who had modified a space under stairs in her Buruburu house to be a hideout bunker to evade numerous police raids was outwitted on Wednesday after authorities busted her.
Claire Marisiana Odimwa, who is facing a Sh204 million tax evasion case and a separate Sh4.9 million fraud case, had not made appearances in court since 2019. In her absence, she was found guilty in the Sh4.9 million case but the sentence had not been handed to her as she was nowhere to be seen.
In the meantime, the court had cancelled her bond and, in 2020, it issued a warrant for her arrest.
But there was a problem: she could never be found. A Nairobi court heard on Thursday that whenever police stormed her house, they could search but not find her.
Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Nanzushi heard that Ms Marisiana ran out of luck on Wednesday. Her phone signal showed she was in the house but police couldn’t find her.
They searched for her even in the ceiling but their efforts bore no fruits. But signals showed that she was there. The court heard that police then decided to open a closed cabinet under the stairs and to their surprise, she was there.
The investigating officer in the criminal cases against Ms Marisiana told the magistrate that the arrest was a breakthrough “since the accused had been switching her phone on and off all this while”.
“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 told the court.
In the Sh4.9 million case conviction, Ms Marisiana was found guilty of obtaining the money from Thomas Aul Ewald by pretending she was taking her sick relative abroad for medication.
The magistrate informed Ms Marisiana that her case had proceeded in her absence and her conviction secured.
“You were convicted in absentia and now you will serve a two-year jail term with an alternative fine of Sh300,000,” said the magistrate as she read her sentence.
The magistrate ordered that Ms Marisiana begins serving the sentence immediately since her bond had been forfeited to the State.
Ms Nanzushi had issued the warrant for her arrest in 2020 when she stopped attending court. The conviction was handed down last year.
The magistrate directed that Ms Marisiana be presented before another senior principal magistrate – Ms Wandia Nyamu – for directions in the Sh204 million tax case.
But a lawyer defending Ms Marisiana said she had been sick and that she had lost track of the proceedings after the court went virtual during the Covid-19 pandemic. BY DAILY NATION
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