Two foreigners found with Ksh.110B fake notes jailed for ten years

Two foreigners who were arrested in Nairobi with Ksh.110 billion fake notes have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In his ruling, Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi noted that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the cases against Mohamed Sani alias Dr. Mustafa from Niger and Ousman Ibrahim Bako, a Cameroonian.

The two, who have been in custody for two-and-half years, were also handed a six-month sentence each for being unlawfully present in Kenya and engaging in employment without being authorized to do so by a pass or permit.

The court heard that the two were found in possession of the forgery papers in January 14 and January 15, 2016 at Diamond Park II Estate in Nairobi.

According to the court documents, 6,931,000 pieces of paper were intended to make fake US dollar currency notes, while 739,200 papers were meant to forge Euro notes.

They were charged that on the same dates and place they were found with two scanners, two bottles of iodine for producing figures and marks peculiar to those used in making US dollars and Euro currency notes.

During mitigation, Lawyer Steven Kimathi, representing Bako, had pleaded with the court to release Bako arguing that he has a wife who is jobless and a son who was very young when he (Bako) was arrested. The boy is now six years old.

Kimathi told Magistrate Andayi that when Bako walked out of his house on January 14, 2016, when he was arrested, it was for the purpose of benefiting his family.

Lawyer Cliff Ombeta, who was also representing the accused had submitted that Bako’s wife was earlier working for Qatar Airlines but has since been fired.

“The convict is apologetic, remorseful and he is sorry and he only requests the court to release him because he is a changed man after staying in custody for over two years,” said Ombeta.

The prosecution had asked the court to consider handing the accused maximum punishment, arguing that they are first offenders and their acts would have caused a lot of pain to the victims.