Two days ago, police launched a manhunt for Kigunzu, raiding an apartment in Juja whose ownership detectives had linked to her.
Businesslady Nancy Indoveria Kigunzu, alias ‘Mathe wa Ngara’, was on Monday, August 12 charged alongside two accused when they appeared in court over drug trafficking.
Two days ago, police launched a manhunt for Kigunzu, raiding an apartment in Juja whose ownership detectives had linked to her.
Barely a year after she was arrested by detectives who raided a yard that had been closed and later illegally reopened for drug trafficking business where over 100 kilograms of marijuana was seized in Ngara, Nairobi County, Kigunzu found herself back on police radar.
Police believed that Kigunzu owned Georgina Apartments in the Mastore area along Juja Farm Road within Kiambu County and that she shifted base to Juja from Ngara, operating in two houses at the said building where a drug trafficking business had been ongoing for some time.
Nancy Kigunzu alias Mathe wa Ngara pictured after her arrest on August 21, 2023. /CITIZEN DIGITAL
On August 12, she and two others were arraigned at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) courts but pleaded not guilty to trafficking 189,300 grams of bhang with a market value of Ksh5.6 million.
Mathe Wa Ngara was arrested on August 9 alongside David Ochieng Okoth and Christopher Odipo Ochieng at the apartments in possession of the said bhang.
The prosecution objected to the release of the three suspects saying they posed a flight risk and could interfere with witnesses in the case, adding that Mathe Wa Ngara was a repeat offender who had committed a similar offence before.
However, Mathe wa Ngara through her lawyer Danstan Omari opposed the application arguing that the offence is bailable and she is not a flight risk.
The court has since directed that the probation avails a probation report and the matter be mentioned on August 19, 2024, for the said report to be availed.
The search at her house lasted more than 12 hours, with six sacks of marijuana intercepted, and four vehicles as well as a motorbike nabbed.
Police towed away the four vehicles parked at the parking area of the apartment to Juja Police Station where they are being held. While the two suspects were arrested during the raid, Kigunzu went on the run until her court appearance.
This is not the first time Kigunzu has crossed paths with the law. On August 21, 2023, she was arrested in connection to drug trafficking and possession during a police operation in Nairobi, days after a drug bust in Nairobi’s Ngara area also saw Ksh13.4 million in cash seized.
She was freed on December 21, 2023, on a Ksh1 million cash bail and ordered to surrender her passport to the court. However, she wound up losing the Ksh13.4 million to the state on seizure orders.
This was after she failed to explain to the court the source of the money and why she had kept the millions in sacks in her home instead of taking them to the bank.
“An order is hereby made declaring that the sum of Kenya Shillings 13,474,520 found at the respondent’s residence but in the custody of the Central Bank of Kenya is proceeds of crime and therefore liable to forfeiture to the Government of Kenya,” Justice Esther Maina ruled.
The Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi. /FILE