Malindi man jailed for 8 years for bribing police with Ksh.2K

A man in Malindi County has been jailed for eight years for allegedly trying to bribe a police officer with Ksh.2,000 after he tried to secure the release of a drug trafficker.

Joseph Charo Dzombo was found culpable by the Malindi Senior Principal Magistrate Silvia Wewa who ruled that on January 10 2016, Charo committed the offence at Matsangoni road block along the Mombasa- Malindi highway within Kilifi County.

He is said to have tried to bribe a police constable, Obed Munyao, attached to the Malindi Police Station, who was manning the road block together with his colleagues.

The bribe offered was apparently to secure the release of Dennis Odhiambo Sundia who had been arrested for being in possession of 200 rolls of bhang.

The magistrate further said that the accused tried to abuse the trust bestowed upon the police officers by offering a bribe which is against the law.

“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 has bestowed on them,” she said.

“The maximum fine is not supposed to exceed Ksh.1million and maximum penalty is not supposed to be more than ten years but because he is a family man who is depended upon and he is a first offender he pays a fine of Sh. 500,000 in default serve eight years imprisonment,”

In his defence, Charo told the court that he was not aware that Odhiambo (who he wanted released) had been arrested with bhang and appealed to the court for leniency.

Charo also told the court that he had received a phone call from Odhiambo asking him to help secure his release after he was arrested.