Woman says fugitive boyfriend owned mobile phone linked to murder case

Ngira Karisa at a Mombasa Court in Mombasa County on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, during the hearing of a case where he is charged alongside others for the death of businessman Kassim Jiraw alias Sokorow. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

A woman arrested after she was found with a phone linked to the murder of Nairobi-based businessman Kassim Jiraw has told the court that she got it from her lover.

Ms Sidi Garama, 56, told the High Court in Mombasa yesterday she tried to ask her boyfriend, Mr Katana Ngala, how he had acquired the cell phone but he did not tell her.

Mr Katana has been missing since Mr Kassim’s murder in September 2018. The businessman’s body was found in Malindi, Kilifi County.

Investigations have shown that the phone was used to communicate with Mr Kassim on the night he was killed.

Mr Kassim’s stepbrother Mr Abdirahman Jiraw told Justice Ann Ong’injo the trader was heading to Kilifi County to collect Sh23 million following a tender he had won to supply X-Ray foils and air conditioners to local hospitals.

Yesterday, Ms Sidi told Justice Ong’injo she was busy cooking in Mr Katana’s kitchen at his home in Lokole when the police came to arrest him. However, Mr Katana escaped, she said. “We had a friendship with Mr Katana as lovers. I had gone to attend a burial at Mr Katana’s place when I noticed the phone. I asked him who the owner was but he did not tell me and so, I took it,” said Ms Sidi.

She said she later gave the phone to her daughter Ms Celina Garama to use.

“I was cooking when I was arrested over the phone I took from Mr Katana. Mr Katana run away and I don’t know where he went. He never told me where he got the phone from,” said Ms Sidi. Ms Celina, 33, who was also arrested over the same phone, said her mother handed her the phone and told her she had received it from Mr Katana.

“My mother brought me the phone and told me she had taken it from Katana who is my mother’s boyfriend,” Ms Celina said in her testimony.

So far, Ngira Karisa Charo (pictured), Mandi Jilani and Makonde Ruwa have been charged with Kassim’s murder.

Mr Kassim’s charred body was found dumped at Arabuko Sokoke Forest. Reports indicated that his killers poured acide on his body.

Mr Abdirahman said Mr Kassim had previously been supplying drugs to Mombasa County before getting two other tenders in Kilifi.

He said his brother was set to receive payment of Sh8 million for supplying X-Ray foils and Sh15 million for air conditioners supplied to hospitals in Kilifi County.  During his trial before Justice Erick Ogola in 2018, Charo confessed he participated in the murder.