A Dagoreti DCI officer was on Wednesday slapped with a 5-year jail term after being found guilty of taking a Sh 200,000 bribe.
However, Julius Oguma has an alternative of paying a Sh 1.9 million fine to secure his freedom is he does not want to serve time.
Oguma was charged alongside another officer Charles Macharia who was given a lesser sentence of one year in jail or Sh 400,000 fine for being found guilty of only one count compared to Oguma who was found guilty of three counts.
While sentencing them, Anti-corruption magistrate Thomas Nzyuki said he had considered the pre-sentence report which stated that they were both soul bread winners in their families.
In mitigation, their lawyer Danstan Omari told the court to consider a non-custodial sentence saying that the amount alleged to have been obtained does amount to an economic crime.
“your honor the accused persons herein convicts are very remorseful, they have undergone excessive humiliation from the public, and they have always been in the media limelight ever since they were arrested and charged, we urge this court to consider the humiliation as a sufficient punishment and fine the convicts to pay a fine of Ksh 100,000.” Omari said.
Last week, the two were convicted and the magistrate said that the evidence tendered before the court was sufficient in proving the charges against the officers.
In trial, the court heard that the offense occurred at Kabete Police Station on November 28, 2018 and it was alleged that Oguma received a Sh 200,000 from a Chinese investor Pan Xido Yan in Kabete in 2018 as a condition to drop charges against his wife who at the time was said to be in Kenya illegally.
According to witnesses who testified, Oguma had requested for a Sh 1 million bribe and negotiated it down to Sh 200,000.
Oguma was found guilty of receiving a bribe and concealing evidence and it also emerged that during arrest he disappeared with the treated EACC money and the genuine cash too.
Macharia’s only mistake was that he allegedly obstructed an EACC officer during the arrest of Oguma his colleague.
The magistrate also jailed another DCI officer Charles Macharia Wanjiru after he was found guilty of obstructing of an EACC officer during the arrest of Onyango.
