London - A British woman faces up to 14 years' hard labour in a Kenyan jail over a plot to steal UN property from Somalia, a court heard yesterday. The Kenyan authorities are seeking the extradition of Ms Kerry Page after she fled the country while on bail pending her trial, which was due to be held last year.
She is accused of overseeing the theft of forklift trucks, shipping containers and other property worth thousands of pounds in 1995 during the hasty departure of UN peacekeepers from bloody feuding between rival clan leaders.
Ms Page (30), from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was shipping manager of her husband Arran's firm, Morris Catering, which supplied the United States-led UN forces which moved into Somalia from 1992.
As the UN pulled out of Somalia, representatives of Morris Catering are accused of painting the organisation's white containers red and of trying to remove serial numbers which identified them as UN property, Bow Street Magistrates Court was told. Mr Morris had been living in Dubai.