Meru paralegal in court on charges of soliciting for bribe

A community paralegal officer based in Meru was Thursday charged with five counts of committing an economic crime.

Judith Wangari Njue, an employee of Meru Paralegal Community Based Organisation appeared before Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochieng.

She denied the charges and was freed on a Sh100,000 bail.

The court heard that Ms Njue was arrested by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers on August 13, and later freed on a police bond of Sh10,000 after recording a statement with the detectives at the EACC regional offices in Isiolo.

When she was arraigned in court Thursday, defence lawyer Manases Kariuki filed an application objecting her plea.

He asked the court to withdraw the charges arguing that the prosecution erred in drafting the charges.

The magistrate had to adjourn the matter for 15 minutes to verify the issues raised by the defence lawyer.

CHARGE SHEET AUTHENTIC

Mr Ochieng ruled that the charge sheet was authentic and the charges were as per the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.

In the first count, Wangari is accused of corruptly soliciting for a bribe of Sh40,000.

The prosecution told the court that she solicited a bribe from Mr Joseph Gitonga Marimba so that she could pluck out a copy of an affidavit from the file at Meru Children’s Court.

She also allegedly assured Mr Marimba that she could make a recommendation that he be granted the custody of his child who lives with his estranged wife.

Wangari allegedly solicited for the bribe on July 30, 2015 in her office at the North Imenti Constituency Development Fund building.

On the second count she was charged with soliciting for another bribe of Sh10,000 from the same complainant.

She also faced a third count of receiving a bribe of Sh10,000 on August 13 from Mr Marimba.

The prosecution also charged Wangari with concealing evidence.

DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE

The prosecution said that the officer concealed Sh10,000 which she had knowledge would be used as evidence in investigating the corruption offence.

Wangari also faced a fifth charge of destruction of evidence.

The court was told that on August 13, she destroyed Sh10,000 by throwing the money into a pit latrine at the CDF building.

She however denied all the charges.

Senior prosecution counsel Moses Waliula, however, did not oppose an application by the accused to be freed on a reasonable bail.

The magistrate directed Wangari to deposit the cash bail before her release.

The case will be mentioned on September 13, 2015 and the hearing was set for February 9, 2016.