A Mombasa Court has set free a widow arrested last week and accused of selling illegal beer locally known as changaa.
Susan Cherono was arrested at Magongo area after police officers stormed her home, broke the door and found twenty litres of the brew under her bed following a tip-off.
According to the prosecution, Cherono is said to have ferried the brew from Taita Taveta after a friend transported it from upcountry but declined to deliver it to her home for fear of being arrested following heightened surveillance in Mombasa ahead of the Easter holidays.
Judge Eric Ogolla who freed the woman said her children would suffer is she is handed a jail sentence.
The woman had said while pleading to be freed: "I am the sole breadwinner for my family. My husband died a long time ago and left me with three children who are all in school. They depend on me fully. If I am jailed, no one will take care of them and thus they will suffer,"
The Judge, however, told her to find an alternative business instead of engaging in the sale of outlawed brews.
The case was heard one week after police intensified the crackdown on the sale and consumption of illicit brews ahead of the Easter holiday that kicked off on Friday.