Court: Businessman in illegal possession of 507 bullets has case to answer

MOMBASA, KENYA: A Mombasa businessman charged with being in possession of 507 rounds of ammunition without a firearm license has a case to answer.

Noor Mohamed Ashraf was charged with being in possession of 507 rounds of ammunition without a firearm license, forging documents and giving false information to the police.

The investigating officer in the case, Inspector Nathan Kipyatich in his testimony told the court that the 507 rounds of blank ammunition were found in the room which the accused person lives.

“What I can confirm in this court is that the blank ammunition were in his room since I was among the team that was conducting the search, and what I know is that we were not told if he lived with anyone in the room but it seems he lived alone,” said Inspector Kipyatich while testifying before Principal Magistrate Charles Ndegwa.

The investigating officer further clarified that indeed the accused person reported that there was a box with cartridges in one of the rooms that belonged to his sister and foreign husband and even carried some bullets while reporting, but found the box in the accused person’s house.

“Every charge that I put against the accused person is not false since I did so according to the investigations we concluded prompting me to place the current charges against the accused person,” said Inspector Kipyatich while being cross-examined by Noor’s lawyer Gikandi Ngibuini.

Inspector Kipyatich was with his then boss Francis Kipsang who while testifying sometimes last year told the court that in the course of his investigation he discovered that the accused person held vendetta against his sister Zahara Pote and her husband Allen Pote.

“The accused person lied to me that the rounds of ammunition were brought by his brother in law Allen Pote, husband to the sister Zahara Pote,” said Kipsang while emphasizing that the accused person presented three rounds of ammunition to DCI officers claiming, falsely, that he had recovered them from his sister’s house.

 The magistrate placed Noor on his defense and will defend himself against the charges on April 1.