A Rwandese woman who was in November 2018 sentenced to life in jail for killing her love rival but was later freed by Court of Appeal has been arrested again for planning the murder of a Swiss national in Nairobi.
Antoinette Uwineza, alias Micheline Uwababyyi, was arrested by undercover detectives from Central Nairobi Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) who posed as hitmen, and offered to kill the foreigner.
Uwineza, oblivious of the plan, agreed to meet undercover officers and revealed to them the identity of the person to be killed and the conditions.
Police officers from Kamukunji on December 29 received information from an informer that Uwineza was looking for hitmen to eliminate Guido Helbling, a Swiss national who jetted into the country on December 26.
Helbing was staying at Sankara Hotel in Westlands and was to check out on December 30.
The DCI detectives organized for two officers who posed as hitmen and planned a meeting with the woman.
They met and the woman told 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 a total of Sh9,297,219 from the foreigner,” police said.
After deliberations, the officers agreed with the woman on the terms of engagement which included equal sharing of the money got after the murder of the foreigner.
Further, Uwineza requested the female undercover officer to give her a photo to make a fake identity card that would be used to rent an apartment where the mission will be carried out.
As a result, a fake identity card was produced bearing the name Sarah Nafula Masika, identity card number 27775574.
On December 31, the female undercover officer accompanied by the suspect and his brother namely Eddy Kwizera went to Westlands to hire an apartment.
She then invited the suspect for dinner in her new house, and the foreigner agreed.
However, as the suspect, her brother and the foreigner were proceeding to the Westlands house, undercover detectives pounced on them and arrested them.
They were searched and found in possession of two Somali knives and a container of acid.
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.
At the time, the deceased was cohabiting with her boyfriend, Simon James Smith, a British national, at Smith’s Rhapta Road apartments residence in Westlands, Nairobi.
Uwambaye had earlier February 14, 2013 told her boyfriend that she would join him later that evening for dinner, but the boyfriend later received a phone call that she had left for Nakuru with her friends.
However, two days later, her body was discovered in a city lodging.
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.
Justice Lesiit stated in her ruling that Uwineza was the last person who communicated with Uwambaye before she died.
The then 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.”
