A man was sentenced to 3 years in jail on Monday after being found guilty of pretending to be a blind man and for getting money from people in an illegal way. Martin Kinyanjui appeared before Chief Magistrate, James Ogweno and pleaded guilty of the charges against him.
The prosecution desk told the court that on July 11, 2015 police on patrol from Kikuyu police Station were tipped by members of the public about the accused man's criminal activities. Police approached where he was standing wearing black shades to hide his eyes and a walking stick to convince residents that he was indeed a blind man.
When the police interrogated him, the accused appeared to be very uneasy raising alarm. Police removed the shade he had worn to hide his eyes and they found his eyes to be normal since blind people's eyes appear different.
However he had applied some oil and closed them so as to appear to be a real blind man. In the second charge, the prosecution said that on the same date during the arrest, police conducted a quick search on the accused and found Sh 600 in his pocket that he had collected from residents.
Police arrested him and took him to Kikuyu police station where further investigations conducted. Kinyanjui pleaded guilty of the charges and in his mitigation said that he was driven into that criminal act as a result of poverty. He mentioned that he was the bread winner of his family that comprised of three children and his wife. He revealed that he had only engaged in the criminal act for 4 month after numerous efforts of trying to do different businesses and failing and also lack of employment. Justice Ogweno in the first charge sentenced the accused to 1 year in jail and the second charge sentenced the accused to 3 years in jail. He was given 14 days to appeal.