Herbalist in money laundering case brags of global network of clients
A herbalist in court over money laundering on Thursday bragged before a Shanzu court that he has a wide network of clients all over the world who pay him handsomely for his service.
The herbalist, Stephen Vicker Mangira, was arrested in 2018 by Hamisi Masa who was at the time head of anti narcotics police unit and the current Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Hajji who was then an intelligence officer.
He was found with Sh18 million stashed in his car.
His co-accused Nabil Loo and Bakari Kila Bakari were charged with trafficking in narcotics and money laundering.
On Thursday, Mangira told Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Florence Macharia that he informed Hajji and Masa at the time of the arrest that the money he was found in possession was meant for paying school fees for his son among other plans.
He further told the court that an affidavit by the investigating officer had implicated that his travel pattern showed that he was a connected person which gave more strength to their case that he was laundering money.
“Your honour, I have clients all over the world. These include Dubai, Tanzania and even South Africa and this requires me to travel a lot,” said Mangira.
He further told the court that despite him having dropped out of school in class seven and cannot read or write in English, his healing gift has been his source of income and he proved it by providing his work certificates.
“I have always paid all required taxes and the money I had on me was planned for. I live in Kericho and on that specific day, I had come to Mombasa with my son to show him a house I wanted to purchase,” added Mangira.
During the cross examination, Mangira told the court that he was not given time by the police who arrested him to explain why he had that amount of money with him
He said that at some point after the police raided his house, they took some Sh200,000 and even gave his guard Sh6,000 while they were leaving.
Defense case is set to continue on Sept 25.
