By Salim Mutuma
A Meru court has convicted a couple for trafficking 103 kilogrammes of bhang worth Sh3 million bhang and jailed them for life after a three-year trial.
James Muthiora ‘Karinta’ and his wife Fridah Karimi will also be required to pay a Sh4.5 million fine and serve a five-year jail term if they default.
Meru Senior Principal Magistrate Thomas Muraguri said the prosecution had proved that the pair were found with the narcotics at their homestead in Kooja estate during a security raid in November 2018.
Three other co-accused Jacob Githae Mukunyu, Timothy Kinoti Kariaci and Joseph Ekeno were acquitted of the bhang trafficking charges due to insufficient evidence linking them to the crime.
The couple’s counsel Kiogora Mugambi expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence saying that witnesses, who were mostly police officers, did not show the exact place where the bhang was recovered from during a past court visit.
The two have 14 days to appeal.
