Two jailed for defrauding Mombasa businessman

MOMBASA: Two people were Tuesday sentenced to two years in jail by a Mombasa court after they pleaded guilty to defrauding a businessman of Sh100,000.

Mutisya Mutei and Sammy Munyao on March 2, this year, allegedly gave a wad of papers disguised as US currency to Abdnoor Aden Maalim.

The prosecution said the two had posed as foreign exchange dealers in position to help Abdinoor change his Sh100,000 into 2,500 US dollars.

The businessman reported the matter to police and at Changamwe and an investigation was launched.

When police arrested the two, they reportedly found Sh20,000 in their house.

Appearing before chief magistrate Stephen Riech, the suspects pleaded for leniency after pleading guilty.

They claimed they were facing hardship and only decided to defraud Abdinoor using the trick they learnt from the streets.

Mutei said he had three children who were ailing and require medical attention yet he had no job while Munyao said he was an orphan who had three siblings depending on him.

"I learnt this trick in the kibanda (neighbourhood) where I used to hang out with my friends and when the problems became much, I decided to apply it to earn some cash," said Munyao.