Man jailed for eight years for bribing cop with Sh2,000

A Malindi Court has jailed a man for eight years for bribing a police officer with Sh2,000 to secure the release of a drug trafficker.

Malindi Senior Principal Magistrate Silvia Wewa found Joseph Charo Dzombo (pictured) guilty of the offence, a crime he committed on January 10, 2016, at Matsangoni roadblock along the Mombasa- Malindi highway, Kilifi County.“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 have bestowed on them,” she said.The court heard that Dzombo tried to bribe Police Constable Obed Munyao to secure the release of Dennis Odhiambo Sundia who had been arrested for being in possession of 200 rolls of bhang.

According to the charge sheet, Dzombo had committed the crime of corruptly offering a benefit contrary to section 39(3)(b) as read with section 48(1) of the Anti-Corruption and economic crimes act no. 3 of 2003 which he denied on January 15, 2016.In mitigation, Dzombo said that he did not know that Odhiambo had been arrested with rolls of bhang and appealed for leniency.“The maximum fine is not supposed to exceed Sh1 million and the 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 Sh500,000 in default serve eight years imprisonment,” the judge ruled.