Killed Venezuelan envoy wanted door locks changed

NAIROBI: The acting Venezuelan Ambassador Olga Fonseca had sought to have the door locks at the chancery changed a few days before she was murdered, the court heard.

The ambassador had also sought to have the telephone number of the owner of the premises the embassy was renting but Dwight Sagaray, a suspect, declined to give her the number.

Alice Muthama, the Managing Director of Muthama Holdings and also the landlord of the Venezuelan embassy, recalled that Sagaray had also denied Fonseca entry into the premises. She said the ambassador had to live at the Tribe Hotel until they held a meeting to resolve the issue.

"When Olga arrived at the embassy she was told by Sagaray and Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed that the landlord had refused her entry into the residence and they had to meet her first. This was not the true position," she said. Sagaray is charged alongside Mohamed.

She said her father Senator Johnstone Muthama, who is the company's chairman, intervened.

Ms Muthama told the court she later got a carpenter to help the ambassador with the change of locks because she (Fonseca) said there was "someone tampering with her office".