The family of flamboyant businessman Don Bosco Gichana, who has been on trial at an Arusha court, are mobilising Sh13.7 million fine to secure his release.
Last Thursday, Gichana pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy and money laundering before the Tanzanian court and was sentenced to a five-year jail term and a TSh300 million (Sh13.7 million) following his conviction.
The politician has been on trial for conspiracy and money laundering charges.
He has been in remand for the past five years. This means he will have his jail term commuted so he can walk to his freedom once he pays the fine.
Yesterday, Gichana’s brother Dunstan Nyakundi told the Star on the phone that the court decided that the family be made aware ahead of today’s formal delivery of judgment.
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“We thank God for what has happened to my brother. It’s been a long journey, but we’re grateful. We’re now looking at how to raise the money to have him released,” Nyakundi said from Arusha.
Gichana unsuccessfully ran for the Kitutu Chache MP seat in 2013.
He was charged alongside four others, including his lawyer Median Mwale.
NASA chief Raila Odinga is said to have sought the intervention of Tanzanian President John Magufuli to release him.
Gichana reportedly gifted Raila with a Hummer SUV before the 2007 election.
Last week, the prosecution, led by principal state attorneys Oshwald Tibabyekomya and Hashima Ngole, read out the charges.
Gichana also admitted that the four exhibits presented by the prosecution, Tanzanian media reported.
He was accused that between 2008 and 2010, he filed false tax returns electronically to the US State Department of Treasury internal revenue service using different names of Dale Houston, Herbert Breneman and Syron Hess, among others.
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The prosecution argued that in the false tax return, Gichana indicated addresses of his co-conspirators who at the time lived in the US.
Gichana was first arrested on March 29, 2013, when he went to Tanzania to visit Mwale who had been in detention since August 2011 over charges, among them money laundering.
He was arrested at the Namanga border point on his way back to Kenya after visiting Mwale at the Arusha Central Prison.
