A Nairobi court has put a 64-year-old woman under police supervision for a period of five years for operating a terrorist property owned by her son who was killed by Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in Somalia.
Rose Awinja Ondumbu who is sickly and elderly was sentenced after Nairobi magistrate court found her guilty of the offence.
It's alleged that on between December 1, 2013 and in March 2017 at Umoja Estate in Nairobi county, she knowingly dealt directly with property namely Nasra Gardens which at the time was owned by Anwar Yogan Mwok, the then member of Al-shabaab terrorist group.
Her son Anwar is alleged to have been killed in Somalia by the Kenya Defence Forces during an operation.
Rose who wept in court during her sentencing was charged in 2017 with two counts of operating a property owned by terrorists and collection of funds for the benefit of terrorists.
Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot, while passing the sentence, considered the mitigation and the nature of the offence which is serious before slapping her with the sentence.
He also considered the fact that she is elderly and her son was killed in Somalia and that she was left to take care of her grandchildren.
"I have noted that she is also a victim of terrorism and that her family is broken. She is also suffering from old age sicknesses," the magistrate ruled.
The magistrate, however, acquitted her of the second count of collection of funds for the benefit of terrorism through collecting house rent and sending to her son Anwar in Somalia knowing that she was funding the terrorism group. Cheruiyot said the prosecution did not prove the count beyond reasonable doubt.
