By Peter Mutai
An advocate was on Friday jailed for two months by a Kericho court for failing to release money to a client he helped draw a sale agreement for a motor vehicle five years ago.
Kericho Chief Magistrate Hedwig Ong’undi committed lawyer Andrew Kipchumba to jail after he failed to release Sh150,000 he held in trust on behalf of his client.
Ong’undi ordered the advocate to make arrangements to pay back the money while serving the jail term and instructed the applicant, a farmer from Brooke area in Kericho County, Kipkoech Korir, to pay for the lawyer’s upkeep in jail.
The farmer moved to court and filed a suit against Shadrack Onchari, who failed to honour payment of the said money being a balance for a motor vehicle he bought from Korir.
The advocate had acted for both parties in drawing an agreement for sale of motor vehicle in 2005.
Korir had sold the vehicle to Onchari at a cost of Sh700,000.
In the sale agreement, Onchari paid Sh550,000 to the farmer before the advocate and was to pay the balance of Sh150,000 on October 31, 2005.
It later emerged that Onchari paid the balance through Kipchumba on behalf of the farmer, but the advocate never remitted the money to Korir.
Kipchumba told the court that he had remitted Sh50,000 to the farmer and had asked to be given more time to pay the balance of Sh100,000.
The plaintiff’s lawyer told the court that Kipchumba had not made any proposal to date to settle the payment and asked to court to have him sent to civil jail.
"He never honoured the undertaking and has never paid anything. I, therefore, commit him to civil jail for 60 days and he will make arrangements to pay while serving civil jail," Ong’undi ruled.
