Kenyan couple admits conning US nuns of Sh77 million

The couple told nuns that their father, a government official, had been assassinated in Kenya. Photo/FILE

A Kenyan couple has pleaded guilty to defrauding Roman Catholic nuns in the United States of more than $1 million (Sh77 million), most of which was then gambled away at a casino.

Edward Bosire, 39, and Angela Martin-Mulu, 35, face more than three years in prison. They are scheduled to be sentenced in October by a federal judge in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee.

The two posed as homeless siblings who had entered the US illegally and who would be killed if they were deported to Kenya.

Their father, a government official, had been assassinated in Kenya, the couple falsely told the nuns who were moved to help the seemingly destitute Kenyans.

“They basically took advantage of (the nuns’) charitable instincts,” federal prosecutor Gordon Giampietro said.

In reality, Bosire and Martin-Mulu came to the US on visas in 1999 and were granted asylum in 2007, reported the Wednesday edition of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

A lawyer for Bosire said his client was sorry for what he had done. “He is humiliated for what he has gotten himself in on,” Mr William Burke told the court.

Martin-Mulu’s attorney Susan Karaskiewicz said “there are definitely mitigating circumstances that will come out at the sentencing hearing.”

And in Nairobi, an application by a former director of Uchumi Supermarket to have fraud trial to proceed in his absence was on Wednesday rejected.

Mr Joseph Munyeria Munene, who has since migrated to Canada, told Nairobi’s chief magistrate Gilbert Mutembei that he was in dire financial straits and might not make it for the hearing.

Defer matter

Through lawyer Fred Ngatia, Mr Munene asked the court to defer the matter to October when he would be able to travel to Kenya for the hearing. But the magistrate rejected the plea.

In his ruling, Mr Mutembei said when he granted the suspects cash bail, he expected everyone to attend court proceedings.

Former chairman of the board of directors of Uchumi Chris Kirubi, Mr Munene and 12 others are charged with conspiracy to defraud the supermarket by selling the Aga Khan Walk branch in Nairobi for Sh147 million.

They have denied the charges and are out on Sh400,000 each.