Three University of Nairobi Kikuyu campus students were on Wednesday arraigned before a Kikuyu court and charged with using illegal means to get money from the public.
They also faced another count of selling alleged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) leaked examinations.
David King'atwa, Hassan Abdi and Francis Kimani all pleaded guilty before Chief Magistrate James Ogweno.
The prosecution said that on Monday September 14, the three were in a cyber cafe in Kikuyu town making phone calls after which the cyber attendant suspected that they were trying to lure students to buy the exam papers for a fee of up to Sh5,000 per paper.
The prosecution said that the police from Kikuyu Police Station responded to the call from the cyber attendant where they found high school students from different schools at the scene.
"Police arrested the suspects and on investigations, they were found with Sh45,000 which police suspected they got in an illegal way by selling the papers," said the prosecution.
In their mitigation the three said they were compelled by hard circumstances in their lives into engaging in the crime, all identifying college fees as their main need.
Justice Ogweno sentenced the three to 1 year imprisonment each or a fine of 500,000 each.
They were all given 14 days to appeal the ruling.