A Mombasa based blogger was on Monday charged with obtaining money under false pretenses after allegedly attempting to extort funds in order to delete a post from his website.
Stephen Sanga was accused of obtaining Sh80,000 from Francis Ngala Karabu.
According to the charge sheet, the article claimed that Karanu and another individual defrauded Kilifi Governor Gideon Mungaro Sh150 million.
Before Senior Resident Magistrate Robert Mbogo, the defendant, Stephen Sanga Barrawah, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The court granted him release on a Ksh 100,000 bond with a surety of the same amount, along with an alternative cash bail of Ksh 20,000.
According to investigations, Barrawah posed as a local journalist to approach Karabu with a dossier alleging his involvement in the purported fraud scheme. He then demanded Ksh 150,000 from Karabu, threatening to publish the dossier if the payment was not made. Eventually, the two parties settled on Ksh 80,000, which was transferred to Barrawah’s Mpesa account in two separate installments.
Further scrutiny revealed that Barrawah requested an additional Ksh 60,000 from Karabu, claiming he could remove a publication from the social media platform “Newsline” that mentioned Karabu. The prosecution sought to amend the charge sheet to include a similar charge related to obtaining money by pretense, a request granted by the court.
The case is scheduled for further hearing on May 5, 2024, when the amended charge sheet will be presented in court.
