Two women were arraigned in court on Wednesday for allegedly selling illicit brew at King’ero village, Kikuyu Sub County. The accused persons, Mary Njeri and Diana Muthoni appeared before Chief Magistrate James Og'weno and pleaded guilty of the charges against them.
The prosecution told the court that on the 16th of June 2015 in King’ero village at around 10 am in the morning, police on patrol from Kikuyu police station met the accused persons with bags on their backs. Police then conducted a quick search on the bags and found illicit brew locally known as ‘chang’aa’ packed in polythene bags.
According to the Police the bags weighed contained 40 litres of the brew. The women were said to be sellers of the illicit brew and were transporting the brew to Zambezi area where they supplied a drinking den. Police arrested the two together with the brew as exhibit and took them to Kikuyu police station where they were charged. On her defence, Njeri said that she was a single mother, her husband passed away 4 years ago and the business was the only way she sustained her family.
She accepted that she had committed an offence and pleaded with the court to be lenient on her and consider her children. Muthoni on the hand stated that she was educating her children with the business and that she had separated with the husband for 2 years.
She also mentioned that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and because the treatment was expensive she had to do the business to enable her to seek treatment in India in August. The Chief Magistrate Mr.Ogweno in his judgement issued a sentence of 6 months in jail or a fine of Ksh 100,000 each.