A Nairobi court has handed a drug trafficker life imprisonment.
Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku also fined Anne Achieng Anyanga Sh20 million.
Announcing the sentence, Ms Mutuku said drugs are a great menace to families and society.
Anyanga was convicted of trafficking 854.3 grams of methamphetamine with a market value of Sh6,834,000 in 2016 in a vehicle with foreign registration numbers.
Prosecutor Anderson Gikunda had asked the court to treat her as a first offender but impose the maximum penalty due to the gravity of the charge and the damage the drugs could have caused to the society.
In mitigation, Anyanga asked the court to be lenient given that she is a single mother.
“I have considered the mitigation and the value of the drugs in question. I hereby order the accused to pay a fine of Sh20,593,200 million (and serve a) life sentence” Ms Mutuku ruled.
The narcotics were transported in a motor vehicle with a Ugandan registration number.
She was arrested in Naivasha, Nakuru County, alongside Elizabeth Akinyi Mboga.
While Mboga was acquitted, Anyanga was charged with trafficking the drugs on August19, 2016.
A driver with Modern Coast bus company had testified that he was driving the vehicle where the drugs were found.
Police stopped the bus in Naivasha and ordered the driver to take it to the Naivasha Police Station, where all passengers were ordered to disembark with their luggage.
He said one of the women was arrested after police informed other passengers that she was trafficking drugs.
The court heard that the drugs were in a brown box carton that had a black polythene bag and 53 plastic brushes. The officers opened the hollow part of the brushes and found a brown substance concealed inside.
A test at the Government Chemist confirmed the substance was methamphetamine.
Anyanga has 14 days to appeal against the sentence. BY DAILY NATION