Four young men who admitted to charges of trying to sneak to America have been sentenced to jail by a Mombasa Court.
Mohamed Bwika, Stephen Malenya, Fredrick Gitari and Mnyika Maganga were being accused of sneaking from Kenya across the Atlantic Ocean to the US.
The court heard that the four accused persons had entered MV Ken Sea on August 18, 2019 and hid on the belly of the ship.
The four were captured when they climbed through a mooring rope and hid in the engine room and chain locker without permission of the Master.
While admitting to the charges, the four told the court that life in Kenya had become hard and unbearable due to lack of jobs and that they wanted to go to the US to look for jobs.
Senior Resident Magistrate Edgar Kagoni found the four guilty and sentenced them to serve six months in prison.
Magistrate Kagoni in his ruling said the sentence will serve as a deterrent to youths or anyone who wants to commit similar crime.
“The youths must be encouraged to love their country and not dream only of going to America. Though you seem to be innocent in your endeavours to look for greener pastures, which you believe you can only be found in America, it must be noted that you were risking your lives by hiding in the ship and in that manner you threatened the crew of the ship.”
“I don’t encourage the conduct of such people around here who think they can hide in a ship and go wherever they want. So that others don’t do the same, they will go to jail for six months,” ruled Kagoni as quoted by standardmedia.co.ke.