Man convicted for impersonating army officer

 By Joel Ngugi

Nairobi, Kenya: A business man aged 22 was convicted to two years in prison by a Kibera court for impersonating a Kenya army officer.

Francis ng’ang’a appeared before acting senior resident magistrate Brian Khaemba accused of presenting himself as an Army officer working with the Kenya defence forces and for fraudulently refusing to pay Sh 3000 to John Kamau a taxi driver.

Nganga admitted to the charges and confirmed the facts as read to the court by the prosecution thus prompting the court to send him to prison on his own conviction.

It was said that the convict took a taxi on 15th February 2014 at Westlands to be taken to Langata. On arrival at Langata the convict requested the driver to drop him at Equity bank so that he could withdraw cash and pay him but on arrival at the bank the accused said he had no money.

It is at this point that he begun intimidating the driver claiming that he was an army officer. He went further to display his picture where he was wearing an army uniform. The taxi driver decided to take the accused to Langata barracks where he asked the soldiers that were manning the gate whether the convict was an officer.

The soldiers denied knowing the accused and advised the taxi driver to take him to the police station. He took him to Langata police where he recorded a statement.

While mitigating, the convict informed the court that the photo which police had arrested him with had been manipulated and that was not him in the army uniform.  He described the picture as “photo shop” urging the court to be lenient with him as he was remorseful.

The court sentenced him for further two years in the second count but the sentences will run concurrently.