Woman fights brother for Sh100m property

A woman is locked in a legal battle with her brother for the ownership of property worth Sh 100 million.

Zahra Pote told a Mombasa court that her brother, Noor Mohamed, tried to plant bullets on her to get her arrested.

Ms Pote is accusing her brother of forging documents that he used to withdraw money from their mother’s account with a local bank and to process a fake title deed in his name.

Mr Mohamed is charged with illegal ownership of ammunition and giving false information to police, which he has denied.

Pote testified that before his arrest, her brother, who is facing a separate forgery charge, lied to police that she and her husband, American Mark Allen Pote, had given him a container with suspicious contents.

The court heard that police found the bullets in a container in Mohamed’s room.

The witness admitted that police questioned her and her husband about who was the real owner of the container in question and absolved them.

“I was never arrested by the police because of the container. I was only detained for some time before being released,” said Pote.

She admitted to working as a contractor in the US military but denied serving as a soldier.

“I have never served in the US military. I only worked as a contractor, not a soldier,” she said.

The witness denied claims the container found in her brother’s room was part of a shipment she brought from the US to Kenya when she retired.

Mohamed has denied being in possession of 507 rounds of blank cartridges. He also faces another charge of giving false information to the police.

The magistrate ordered the trial to begin on August 1 after the defence lawyer applied for an adjournment to allow the court to visit the house where the container was found.