Fresh details have emerged on the Rwandan woman who was last week arrested for planning to murder a Swiss national in Nairobi.
It has emerged Antoinette Uwineza alias Micheline Uwababyyi was in November 2018 sentenced to life in jail after being found guilty of killing her love rival.
She was however later freed after an appeal. She was 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.
She later planned to kill him and take over his money. She was arrested on December 30 as she led a group of hit men to a hotel she planned to kill her Swiss boyfriend in Nairobi’s Westlands area.
The woman and her brother were also carrying a jerrycan full of acid which they planned to douse the body with once the man was dead.
The two also had two swords at the time of their arrest. The man 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.
On December 29, the woman aged 43 and 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 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 for the purpose of making a fake identity card that will be used to rent an apartment where the mission will be carried out.
The fake identity card was made in the name of Sarah Nafula Masika. On December 30 night, the female undercover officers accompanied by the suspect and his brother namely Eddy Kwizera aged 25 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.
She was on January 2 expected in court to face various charges, police said. The 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 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.”
