Tanzanian Woman Who Fell in Love with Kenyan Man Jailed for Life after He Involved Her in Robbery

 

A Tanzanian woman who is serving a life sentence in Kenya has narrated the puzzling circumstances that saw her end up behind bars. The Tanzanian woman detailed how her whirlwind of romance with a Kenyan man landed her in jail.  Fatuma Idd was sentenced to death in 2019 after she was found guilty of robbery with violence and stealing motor vehicles, a crime she says she unknowingly committed for her Kenyan boyfriend. Speaking to Inooro TV from prison, Fatuma said she met and fell in love with the Kenyan man after she visited the Kenya-Tanzania border during the school holidays. She was 19 years old.  The woman recalled that as soon as she fell in love with the Kenyan man, he started sending her on mysterious errands, which would later turn out to be theft. "After we lived together for around nine months. He started sending me on errands to get vehicles for him. He would tell me to pose as a person who needs a vehicle for ferrying goods into Tanzania, so I would get the car and take it to him. I would find him in the company of three others," she narrated. As she did this, it never dawned on her that she was robbing the cars she was being sent to pretend she was hiring. Arrest by Kenyan police However, one day, at around 5 am, just after her Kenyan boyfriend had returned home, police officers stormed their house.  They found her and her Kenyan lover, who was asleep. They ransacked their house and found an assortment of number plates which implicated him. "The police asked me about the number plates, and without even thinking, I just told them the truth about how my Kenyan boyfriend would send me to go get cars for him," she said. Unfortunately, whatever she said was used to implicate her, and she was charged with robbery with violence and pleaded guilty. She was later sentenced to death. Fatuma claims the man was later freed under mysterious circumstances, as he did not appear during the court proceedings. 

by  Racheal Nyaguthie