Blogger charged with extortion in Kilifi fraud saga

 

A 38-year-old blogger was Monday charged before a Shanzu court with allegedly obtaining money as facilitation to pull down an article that claimed two people defrauded Kilifi Governor Gideon Munga’ro of Ksh 150 million.

According to a statement by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the blogger, Stephen Sanga Barrawah allegedly approached the complainant, Francis Ngala Karabu claiming to be a local journalist with a dossier that the complainant colluded with one Loise Makena to defraud Kilifi County Government over Ksh 150,000,000 through garbage collection.

Channel 1“He went further to demand for Ksh 150,000 from Ngala otherwise he would publish the purported dossier but later negotiated via video conference and settled on Ksh 80,000 to which the complaint sent in two instalments of Ksh 60,000 and Ksh 20,000 to the accused’s Mpesa account.” The statement read.

The accused further demanded Ksh 60,000 from Francis Ngala Karabu by pretending that he was in a position to pull down a publication in social media platform “Newsline” which had mentioned Karabu.

Prosecution Counsel Nadrat Mazrui prayed to the court to allow the prosecution to amend the charge sheet and charge the accused with an additional similar charge of obtaining money by false pretense which the court allowed and directed that the amended charge sheet be presented in court on May 5, 2024 when the matter will be mentioned.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges before Senior Resident Magistrate Robert Mbogo and was released on Ksh 100,000 bond with a surety of similar amount with an alternative cash bail of Ksh 20,000.

By Christine Muchira