Criminal wives who remained loyal
Samantha Lewthwaite:British widow Samantha Lewthwaite, who is suspected to have been involved in the recent Kenyan terrorist attack at Westgate Mall, is arguably the most famous of this lot.
Samantha is the widow of the 7/7 bomber, Germaine Lindsay, from whom she learnt bomb-making skills. After the July 7, 2005 attack in London, Samantha expressed shock and denied having any knowledge of her husband’s activities, only to disappear and then resurface in East Africa as a wanted terrorist.
Salma Kabal: Salma Kabal, the wife of Ashik Ali, one of those convicted for planning a terror attack to rival the 9/11 one in the US, admitted that she was aware of the plans of the attacks but chose not to do anything about it because she was trying to rekindle a romance with her husband.
As he finalised the plans to blow himself up in the attack that was foiled, she begged him to father her child. She was charged for failing to inform police of the plot.
Felista Wanjiru (wife of Simon Matheri): After wanted gangster Simon Matheri was gunned down in 2007, his wife, Felista Wanjiru, was arrested and charged with harbouring a criminal. She pleaded guilty to the charges and revealed that she knew about his activities and had begged him to quit for the sake of their children. She was later released on appeal.
Mary Wanjiku Kiririmbi (wife of Bernard Matheri): When Mary Wanjiku met and fell in love with most wanted criminal Bernard Matheri alias Rasta, he gave her an AK-47 to show her his love. She became his second wife and later joined his gang of three. Together they rained terror on Nairobi residents until she was finally arrested in 1999 and jailed for seven years.
