Police in Nairobi have made a major breakthrough after they finally apprehended a woman who had gone into hiding for the last five years in an attempt to evade arrests.
It is reported that the woman identified as Claire Marisiana Odimwa had constructed a hideout under her stairs inside her house as her escape room to avoid arrest.
Each time police would visit her house to arrest her, she was nowhere to be seen.
Claire was facing charges for a Ksh4.9 million tax evasion case, where she was found guilty in 2019.
She is accused of obtaining money with pretence from one Thomas Aul Ewald after she claimed that she was taking a sick relative for treatment abroad.
At the time of the hearing, she was a no-show at the court.
In 2020, the court denied her bond and issued a warrant for her arrest after she had failed to show up in court consecutively.
During a court hearing on Thursday, the investigating officer noted that they made several attempts to arrest the accused but it almost seemed impossible.
He noted that her network signal showed that she was in the house but they were unable to find her even after ransacking the entire house. However, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, they rummaged through a closed cabinet under the stairs where they found her.
“We checked for her in the ceiling but we could not find her, only to find her in a closed cabinet under the staircase at her Buruburu residence,” the officer testified.
While appearing before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Nanzushi on Thursday, April 6, 2023, Claire was sentenced to serve two years in jail with an alternative fine of Ksh300,000.
The accused through her lawyer defended that she had been unwell and missed out on the ongoing proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You were convicted in absentia and now you will serve a two-year jail term with an alternative fine of Ksh300,000,” Magistrate Nzushi ruled.
The accused will start her sentence immediately in accordance with the court ruling.
