Kenyan acquitted of illegal possession of bullet

A KENYAN national has been acquitted of illegal possession of ammunition without a firearm certificate following her arrest at the Victoria Falls International Airport over the weekend.

Lucy Kabethi Wanjiku (36) represented by Thulani Nkala of Dube, Nkala and Company law firm pleaded not guilty to the charge when she appeared before Victoria Falls magistrate Gift Manyika.

She submitted that she was not aware of the presence of the bullet in her luggage and only learnt of it after she was searched at the airport.

Wanjiku said she believed the bullet belonged to her husband and might have been left in the luggage by mistake.

The magistrate found her not guilty and acquitted her on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Portia Moyo told the court that the complainant in the matter was the State represented by Ronald Masiyambiri, a police officer based at the Victoria Falls International Airport.

It was the State case that on March 2 this year Wanjiku was checking out at Victoria Falls International Airport when her luggage was scanned and a metal object was detected in the pocket of her small satchel.

When the satchel was searched, a 9mm bullet was discovered and taken to Forensic Ballistics, Harare where it was established that it was a live 9mm hollow point type bullet.

In her defence Wanjiku submitted that she was part of the organisers of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe-AFI Joint Learning Programme on Developing and Implementing Financial Policies and regulations for women-Led-MSMES which was held at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge from February 26 to 29, 2024.

Wanjiku said she left Malaysia for Zimbabwe on February 24 and arrived in Zimbabwe on February 25 and had a small suitcase and a satchel as her luggage.

Wanjiku said the satchel belonged to her husband.

Wanjiku said she only became aware of the ammunition at the airport on March 2 when it was detected by the security people when she was checking out.