Nancy Indoveria Kigunzu, popularly known as Mathe Wa Ngara, and two co-accused were on Monday, August 12, arraigned in court on charges of drug trafficking.
The three who were arraigned at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) courts pleaded not guilty to trafficking 189,300 grams of bhang with a market value of Sh5.6 million.
Mathe Wa Ngara was arrested on August 9 alongside David Ochieng Okoth and Christopher Odipo Ochieng at Georgina Apartments in Juja, Kiambu County in possession of the bhang.
The prosecution objected to the release of the three suspects saying they posed a flight risk and could interfere with witnesses in the case.
The prosecution also said Mathe Wa Ngara was a repeat offender who had committed a similar offence before.
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The court ordered that a probation report be submitted before a bail decision is made. The case will be mentioned on August 19, 2024.
In August 2023, Mathe Wa Ngara was arrested by Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI), and large quantities of bhang and Sh.13.4 million in cash were seized.
She was freed on December 21, 2023, on a Sh1 million cash bail and ordered to surrender her passport to the court.
The Court on April 30 ruled that the Sh 13.4 million seized from Mathe Wa Ngara by the police be forfeited to the state.
This was after she failed to explain to the court the source of the money and why she had kept the millions in sacks in her home instead of taking them to the bank.
“An order is hereby made declaring that the sum of Kenya Shillings 13,474,520 found at the respondent’s residence but in custody of the Central Bank of Kenya is proceeds of crime and therefore liable to forfeiture to the Government of Kenya,” Justice Esther Maina ruled.
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