Two brothers were arraigned in a Kiambu court on Wednesday and sentenced to 6 months in each for allegedly pirating local music in their movie shop in Kikuyu town. Joseph Njeru and Collins Njuguna appeared before Chief Magistrate, James Og'weno and pleaded guilty of the charges.
The prosecution desk told the court that on the July 14, 2015, officers from the Music Copy Right Society of Kenya accompanied by police from Kikuyu Police station arrested the two who own one Brixton Entertainment shop in Kikuyu. The officer conducted a quick search in their computers where they found two local gospel music songs that were secretly being sold in the shop.
The two were arrested and the machine was also accompanied as exhibit. The prosecution presented the machine as exhibit that the music were found in it. They both pleaded guilty of the charges and in their mitigation, Njeru said that they had recently bought the machine and such songs were found in the machine.
He said that he had not sold the songs and he didn’t know that they existed in the machine. He pleaded with the court to forgive him as they had established themselves in the business to sustain themselves with the business. Njuguna in his mitigation said that they had lost their parents 5 months ago and the business was the only hope for their livelihood. He said that he was sorry and if given a second chance such a crime cannot be found again in their shop. Og'weno sentenced the two to 6 months in jail each or a fine of Sh 30,000.