Witness rented house to neighbor who attacked Mwananchi Credit boss, court told

A property manager at the apartment where Mwananchi Credit Limited director Dennis Mombo was attacked seven years ago has told the court that she rented a house to two of the alleged attackers.

Elizabeth Keboch was testifying in the case where Dishon Mulinge a politician who vied in last year’s elections and two others have been charged with violently robbing Mombo his next-door neighbour.

Mulinge is charged alongside Emma Wairimu and James Njuguna with robbery with violence and being in possession of a firearm without a license.

The apartment was rented out to them on October 7 and the attack on Mombo was on the night of October 31.

Keboch told trial magistrate Robinson Ondieki that Mulinge and the second accused approached her to rent them a house at Daykio Apartments on Ole Dume Road.

The court heard that it was the woman who went to the property first in early October and asked for a house then the next day Mulinge who identified himself as Peter and not Dishon called her to make payments.

She further said that on October 7, the two went to her with a deposit slip of Sh160,000 which was rent and deposit then she gave them the keys to a house in Block B.

Keboch told the court that when she interacted with Peter and his wife as he alleged, he told her that they were expecting a child so she knew the woman was pregnant.

A few weeks later, she was called by one of the tenants that the occupant of House C6 had been attacked by the tenant in C7 which she later learned belonged to the couple who she gave a house in Block B.

She testified that the next day she visited the scene and saw that apartment C7 where Mombo was kept by the attackers had no furniture but only had a mattress on the floor and bedsheets as curtains.

She recorded a statement with the police and told them what she knew of the attackers who had allegedly rented a house at their apartment.

She also identified Mulinge and Wairimu to the court saying they were the couple she rented a house to in 2015.

However, in cross-examination by the defense, Keboch could not explain how the two were able to move houses block B to block C when she handed over the keys to house B, not C.

Lawyer Danstan Omari put her to task to explain how if true his clients switched houses without the knowledge of the management.

Keboch said she did not know how they moved but all she did was give them keys to a house in block B.

Omari wanted to know how people who moved in on October 7 were able to move house to block C7 near the complainant’s house as has been alleged.

“Is it possible that the man may not have been attacked as has been alleged?” he posed.

The case will resume hearing on August 7.