A man has been sentenced to 8 years in jail after he was found guilty of attempting to bribe a police officer with Sh2, 000.
Appearing before Malindi Senior Principal Magistrate Silvia Wewa on Friday, Joseph Charo Dzombo was found guilty of trying to bribe Constable Abed Munyao on January 10, 2016.
The court heard that Charo committed the offense at Matsangoni roadblock along the Mombasa-Malindi Highway, in an attempt to secure the release of a drug trafficking suspect who had been nabbed with 200 rolls of bhang.
In her ruling, Justice Wawa found Charo guilty of contravening section 39(3b) and section 48(1) of the anti-corruption and economics crimes act number 3 of 2003.
“We find that the accused was trying to abuse the trust bestowed by the people on the public officers who were on duty, the accused person was abusing that trust that the other members of the public have bestowed on them,”she ruled, according to the Standard.
But in his defense, Charo said that he did not know that Dennis Odhiambo Sundia whose freedom he was trying to secure had been arrested with the drugs.
He pleaded with the court for leniency and was given an option of a Ksh500, 000 fine.