Questions As Court Acquits Somali National Accused Of Using Fake Birth Certificate to Obtain Kenyan ID

A Nairobi court has acquitted a Somali national accused of fraudulently acquiring a Kenyan identity card, giving false information to public officers, and being unlawfully present in the country, after finding the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Principal Magistrate Rose Ndombi, delivering judgment on September 22, 2025, ruled that the evidence against Abdihakim Saidi Jama was riddled with inconsistencies and gaps that could not sustain a conviction.

Jama faced three charges relating to allegations that in 2011, while applying for a national identity card in Isiolo, he posed as a Kenyan citizen.

He was later accused of unlawfully residing in the country and providing false information to registration officials.

The case was triggered by a complaint filed in 2023 by businesswoman Ayni Hussein Mahammud, who told investigators she had known Jama since childhood in Mogadishu, Somalia.

She claimed he was not Kenyan, pointing to a YouTube video where he allegedly campaigned for a parliamentary seat in Somalia under a different name.

But the magistrate dismissed her testimony as unsubstantiated.

“PW1 did not produce any documentation except her word of mouth,” she said, adding that Mahammud’s allegations emerged only after a personal fallout with the accused.

Another prosecution witness, Fatuma Mohamed, whose ID number appeared on Jama’s application, disowned him, saying she was not his mother and had never claimed him as her child.

Crucially, the prosecution failed to summon registration officials or local elders who vetted Jama’s documents, a gap the court described as “fatal” to the case.

The magistrate further noted that Jama, who is illiterate, may have relied on others to complete his application forms.

She ruled that merely holding an identity card was insufficient proof of deliberate fraud and that the charge of unlawful presence failed after Jama presented his late parents’ Kenyan death certificates.

“Suspicion, however strong, cannot form the basis of a conviction,” Magistrate Ndombi stated, acquitting Jama under Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The decision has stirred questions over the handling of the case, with critics pointing to overlooked evidence.

Investigations had earlier shown that a birth certificate Jama used to secure a Kenyan passport in 2015 (Entry No. L00906313/13) actually belonged to another individual, Ann Gatwiri Kithure.

Despite this revelation, Kithure was never called to testify.

During defence submissions, Jama’s lawyer produced a different birth certificate and death certificates of his supposed parents—documents issued in 2016—further muddying the authenticity of his nationality claims.

Mahammud, who had repeatedly petitioned the DCI and the DPP to expand the charges to include forgery, uttering false documents, and personation, expressed frustration with the outcome.

Through her lawyers, she accused prosecutors of mishandling the case and warned that Jama’s acquittal undermined the fight against document fraud.