Court frees Kitale musician charged with stealing dead man's car
Sheila Wairimu, alias Shay Diva Africa, a socialite cum musician from Kitale, Trans Nzoia County.
A Kitale-based socialite cum musician on Monday denied stealing a Toyota Prado V8 from a deceased Asian man said to have been her lover.
Sheila Wairimu, alias Shay Diva Africa, appeared before Kitale chief magistrate Julius Ng'arng'ar to answer to three charges.
Sheila Wairimu, alias Shay Diva Africa (left), a socialite cum musician from Kitale in court on July 5, 2021.
She was accused of obtaining registration by false pretense and stealing.
The luxury car in question, a Toyota Prado V8 registration number KCK 466N, belonged to Pankajkumar Juthalal Dodhia. Ms Wairimu said he gifted the car to her before he passed on.
Ms Wairimu pleaded not guilty to the offences and was ordered by the magistrate to deposit a cash bail of Sh100,000 with a surety of a similar amount or a bond of Sh500, 000.
The 30-year-old musician, who was arrested on Friday last week, is accused of allegedly accessing the tycoon’s National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) account and transferring ownership of the vehicle to herself without following due processes of succession.
The man died in April aged 61.
His family lodged a complaint with the police after learning that Ms Wairimu had taken the car, saying he only gave it to her on a “use and return basis” since they were in a relationship.
“After the owner of the vehicle died, she changed ownership within four days. The deceased’s wife authorised one of the relatives to make a report of any property owned by the deceased,” said Trans Nzoia DCI officer Francis Kihara.
According to the record at NTSA, the accused made a transfer of the log book by logging into the TIMs account at 11.45 pm on April 26, four days after the man died.
The authorisation of transfer was granted at 2pm the next day but there were no supporting documents from the owner.
Police officers tracked Ms Wairimu to Kitengela where she stays, and towed the vehicles from her compound to Buruburu police station.
The vehicle was later towed to Kitale Police Station. It was when she tried to retrieve it from there that she was arrested.
“She initially made attempts through lawyers to block us from pursuing the matter but failed. She came on Friday in an attempt to recover the vehicle but we arrested her instead,” Mr Kihara told the Nation.
The court will fix a hearing date on July 19 when the parties will appear again for a mention.
