Police officers posing as hitmen for hire on Sunday arrested a Rwandan woman and her brother as they plotted to kill her Swiss friend.
The woman is currently being held at Central police station ahead of her arraignment on Tuesday. According to detectives, the officers got wind of her plans from an informer.
The 50-year-old target arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday and checked in at Sankara Hotel in Westlands. He was to leave the hotel and join the woman at an apartment in the same area.
“The team met the lady on December 30 and were informed by the said lady that the foreigner has in his possession 850,000 euros, translating to Sh159 million. 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 she had received Sh9,297,219 from the said foreigner between June 10 and March 17, this year,” the OB report states.
After deliberations, the officers agreed with the woman on the terms of engagement, which included equal sharing of the money obtained after the murder.
The process included forging an identity card using the female undercover officer’s photo for use in renting an apartment in Westlands where the suspect would invite the target for dinner before the attack. The card was made in the name of Sarah Nafula Masika.
On Sunday morning, the female undercover officer, accompanied by the suspect and her 25-year-old brother, went to Westlands to rent the apartment.
“Upon searching the suspect and her brother, two Somali knives and acid were recovered,” the report states.
According to the National Crime and Research Centre, cases of intimate partner violence have been on the rise in the country, By February 2019, 11 women were reported killed by a current or ex-partner through stabbing, hacking, strangling, beating or shooting. Others were left injured or maimed.
“By the end of 2019, 47 women and three men had been killed by current or ex-partners and three children killed in the same incidents. Further many of the attackers then turned on themselves in their remorse,” the centre states in its 2020 report on intimate partner violence in the country.
