Kenyan Woman in Court for Forging Asian Tycoon’s Death Certificate to Inherit His Sh120 Million

An elderly man of Asian descent has narrated to a Nairobi court how a 33-year-old woman tried to rob him of millions of shillings.

Appearing before Milimani law court magistrate Rose Otieno, 70-year-old Alihadi Dafilla Ali said Mercy Njoki alias Fatuma forged his death certificate, a marriage certificate, and a birth certificate of an inexistent child in a well-planned scheme to rob him Sh120 million.

The businessman told the court that he received a call from Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) while in Kampala, Uganda, and was summoned to the lender’s branch along University Way in Nairobi. Alihadi said he traveled from Kampala to the Kenyan capital via road after missing a flight.

Upon arrival in Nairobi, he visited the bank where he met the branch manager and other two officials from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Alihadi was shocked when the officials asked him whether he has passed away and a number of other questions.

“They asked me whether I was married and with a child. I stated that I was once married to Fatuma Abdulmoniem, a lady from Yemen, whom I divorced in 1983. She went back to her country and we had no child together,” he told the magistrate.

It is after this that he was informed that a woman had visited the bank claiming that he was dead and that she was his widow. She also claimed that they had a daughter together.

“I told Mr. Rotich, the bank staff, that I was not aware of the claims by the woman since I have never married anyone since 1983. I also told him that I have no child by the name Amina Zainab,” the businessman said.

Alihadi disowned a marriage certificate linking him to the suspect Fatuma Mercy Njoki and stated that he did not know anyone by that name.

“I was shown my death certificate and a birth certificate of Amina Zainab, my alleged daughter, and a land sale agreement. The documents are fake and were made with an intention of stealing money from my bank account,” he said.

In this case, Njoki and his co-accused Bakari Abdalla Vuwa were charged with conspiracy to defraud the businessman of Sh120 million. The two also face four other counts of forging a death certificate and a birth certificate.

Court documents show that Njoki presented to the bank a marriage certificate dated April 2nd, 2010, claiming it was issued in Imenti North, Meru county. 

She also presented a birth certificate of a child aged seven years, her certificate of her conversion to Muslim, and a death certificate of Alihadi purporting that he died on January 17th, 2018, at Kenyatta National Hospital Nairobi.