• Student paid Sh40 000 to bail out friend charged with stealing girlfriend's phone.
• He felt pity on him and gave him money meant for college fees upon a promise to refund.
A university student got his college fees back after convincing a magistrate in Kibera to reverse cash bail.
Samuel Mwangi Wanjohi paid Sh40, 000 as cash bail for the release of his close friend.
Wanjohi told court that he went to visit Dicken Otieno who had been charged with theft and detained at Industrial Area Remand Prison.
He said he felt pity on him and offered to lend him some cash for bail after they agreed that he would refund the cash before college deadline.
“We agreed that he would repay my money just before we started our examinations as I made it very clear to him that it was my school fees,” Wanjohi said.
The visit would however mark the last time Wanjohi saw or heard from his friend who left remand after paying the cash bail.
“I sent him Sh40, 000 for bail on mobile money but he breached our agreement,” he told court.
Wanjohi told the magistrate that he could no longer wait as the case was still ongoing but he had been sent away from university.
“The school fees is paid by my uncle and I cannot go back to my uncle to ask for more money,” he said. “I had tried tracking him in vain. His phone isn’t reachable”.
After several attempts to reach his friend on phone, he decided that the only way to find him was to follow up on the court case.
Kibera senior resident magistrate Barbara Ojoo ordered that the money Wanjohi had paid as bail for his friend be refunded.
“The accused shall remain in custody until the next mention before we can make a decision on the bail terms,” she said.
Otieno was in September 5, 2018 accused of stealing from his girlfriend a mobile phone valued at Sh80, 000.
Otieno had asked his girlfriend Emmaculate Adhiambo to accompany him to visit non-existent sick relative at Agha Khan Hospital in Parklands.
He then allegedly snatched her phone and ran off.
“My man started behaving strangely because he had no money which he had always boasted of having,” Adhiambo said.
According to the charges, Otieno and Adhiambo went to meet the former’s music producer at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“He asked me to accompany him to meet his supposed white music producer who was jetting into the country. We were to spend the night there,” she said.
The girlfriend said there was no one at the airport and as they waited, Otieno suggested that they visit his sick relative at Aga Khan Hospital.
It was outside near the hospital that Adhiambo said Otieno snatched her phone and vanished. She reported the matter at Parklands police station.
Magistrate Ojoo ordered that Otieno be remanded in custody till the next mention on June 28.