MOMBASA, Kenya, Feb 3 – A court in Mombasa has jailed a Kenyan Born Switzerland woman for 12 months for fraudulently acquiring a death certificate with the intention of defrauding her late aunt’s vast estate in Switzerland and Kilifi county worth millions.
The woman was given an alternative Sh100,000 fine.
Her late aunt Maria Mwikali who resided in Switzerland hard vast estate in Switzerland worth Sh7 million while having 2 acre beach plot at Mtondia Kilifi county.
On her death she had rescinded her Switzerland citizenship and settled in her 2 acre beach plot In Kilifi.
Reading the judgement senior Resident Magistrate David Odhiambo found Milcah Mwende Kimako guilty of two offences; procuring extension of a document by false pretense and giving false information to a public officer.
“In view of the foregoing , I hereby find that the persecution has proved it’s case beyond reasonable doubt in respect to count I for the offense of procuring extension of a document by false pretences contrary to section 355 of the penal code and count II for the offense of giving false information to a public officer to a person employed in public service contrary to section 129 of the penal code and therefore conflict her under section 215 of the Criminal procedure Code,” read part of the judgement.
Milcah Mwende Kimako was accused of fraudulently procured a registrar of births and deaths at Civil Registration office in Mombasa county to sign and issue a death certificate for Maria Mwikali her aunt on 15th October 2015.
She was also accused of giving false information to a police officer at Huduma centre kitui to obtain the abstract from the officer.
One of the witnesses Stanley Safari testified that on 9th November 2015 the accused person went to his office seeking to apply for a death certificate but claimed the ID of the deceased was lost.
He then advised her to get the letter from chief which she did and he sent the documents to the Registrar in Mombasa and the death certificate was processed.
Another witness Jackson Mulandi a retired civil servant at the Immigration Department testified that on 12th October 2015 he received a call from a colleague i kitui, Stanley Kimoto who requested him to for assistance in processing a death certificate for a client.
“I was informed that the the place of death was Mombasa although the client did not have the deceased’s ID or burial permit, I then advised the client to get a police abstract for the documents she did not have.
The abstract was sent to me and I prepared a death certificate and sent it to Kitui, “said Mr. Mulandi.
“However, after sometime ,people came to my office seeking a death certificate for the same person.
I informed them that the certificate had been issued to someone else,” he added.
The investigating officer told the court that the investigation revealed that the the entry number for certificate of death No. 0251503676 serial No 0527554 issued on 17th December 2015 was fraudulently acquired by the accused person.
Mwende defended herself from the allegations saying that she needed to get the death certificate to inform the Switzerland authorities about the death of her aunt who was married and lived in Switzerland since 1991.
She claimed that if she didn’t get the death certificate, the pension money for her aunt would accumulated and she would be blamed.
In addition she said that she was not claiming the money any money from the deceased’ s account in Switzerland.
The court also acquitted her two other charges; the offence of marking a false statement for insertion in Registers of Births and Deaths contrary to to section 363 of the penal code and the offense of giving false declaration for the purpose of acquiring a passport contrary to section 54(1)(a) of the Kenya Citizenship and immigration Act of 2011.
Magistrate Odhiambo reiterated that the prosecution failed to prove it’s case against the accused.
