Gwendo fined Sh660k after appeal for theft

Former Senator Joy Gwendo was yesterday fined Sh660,000 or in default spend a year in jail for swindling a sacco of Sh1.7 million.

Last year, Anti-Corruption chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti jailed her for two years without the option of fine after she refused to heed a plea bargain she entered with the prosecution to pay the society.

The former senator had pleaded guilty to three fraud charges following the plea bargain deal with the DPP.

In the plea agreement, Gwendo had also agreed to pay the money in four instalments to the group. She failed to do so and Ogoti ruled that she was a dishonest person. However, she moved to the High Court and appealed the decision of the court and her sentence was suspended. In his ruling on the appeal, Justice John Onyiego quashed the sentence, saying the trial court erred by sentencing her to jail without the option of a fine.

“Sentencing is a discretion of the trial court but the sentencing imposed should not be illegal. This court has powers to review the sentence imposed, so let the applicant appear in court on Monday,” the judge ruled.

It was alleged that on October 23, 2016 at Chiga parish in Kisumu East, Gwendo used her position as a state officer to confer herself Sh2,226,800, the property of Kisumu East Cotton Growers Cooperative Society.

Judge Onyiego considered her mitigation that she was remorseful and had already repaid the money.