Suspect ‘lured’ old woman to obtain birth certificate

Terror suspect Jermaine Grant follows proceedings of a case against him at Shanzu Law Courts in Mombasa Monday. [Photo: Omondi Onyango/Standard]

By Willis Oketch

Kenya: British terror suspect Jermaine Grant induced an elderly Kenyan woman to pose as his grandmother to enable him get a birth certificate to become a Kenyan citizen two years ago.

This is according to evidence adduced in court by a village elder from Tausa sub location in Taita-Taveta County on Friday.

The witness, Samuel Makosa Alexander, disclosed that Grant and a colleague identified only as Mustapha presented themselves to a sub-chief as grandsons of the unidentified woman they had accompanied to the administrator. The duo’s tricks began to falter when the woman was subjected to intense interrogation and she began to contradict herself.

As she sweltered under intense questioning, Grant and Mustapha slipped away, pretending to be communicating on cellphone.

This testimony was adduced in Grant’s trial where he is charged with trying to illegally obtain a Kenyan birth certificate and an identity card.

Unidentified woman

The witness said the unidentified woman who posed as Grant’s grandmother failed to prove how she was related to the Briton.

Alexander told Mombasa Resident Magistrate Anastasia Ndungu that before Grant and Mustapha went to the assistant chief’s office at Tausa, a woman had approached him to help her grandchildren secure birth certificates.

Makosa was giving evidence in a case in which Jermaine Grant alias Peter Joseph, alias Mohamed Ali, alias Robert Mwakio Muati, has denied on diverse dates between September 19 and 26, 2011 at Tausa Division in Taita-Taveta, jointly with others not before the court, being a British citizen attempted to obtain a Kenyan birth certificate in the name of  Robert Mwakio Mwate, by false pretence. Grant, represented by lawyer Chacha Mwita, has denied the charges.

He has been remanded at Shimo la Tewa after being denied a bond because he is facing terrorism charges before another court.

“The woman told me that she had approached her assistant chief of Tanzania sub location over birth certificates for her grandchildren but he had declined to do so,” said Makosa.

The prosecution is led by State Counsel Yasmin Jamii. He told the court that since he was a village elder he could talk to his boss who is the sub-chief of Tausa over how he would help them get the documents.

“I asked her about her daughter because I noticed the grandchildren were of mixed races,” said Makosa.

He told the court the woman told him her daughter had been married in America but died. “I talked to the woman if the daughter had a white husband hence the white children,” said Makosa. He recalled how one of the boys, Mustapha, pretended to be answering a phone call and them disappeared.

He said after a short while, Grant also disappeared. I later reported the matter to the police. Makosa told the court he saw Grant’s photograph in the media that he had been arrested over terrorism charges a few days later. Kiharu District Officer Esther Wanjiku Waiganju told the court how she approved documents to enable Grant secure the document after the deputy chief approved them.

“I trusted my assistant chief and his staff who attached a death certificate of a deceased person, which a woman claimed was the grandfather of Grant,” said Wanjiku.