A man charged with supplying bhang to prisoners at Kenyatta National Hospital pleaded guilty on Monday after spending over a year behind bars.
Protus Gakonyo was arrested on January 21, 2019, at Kenyatta National Hospital with 400 rolls of bhang with a street value of Sh20,000.
He pleaded guilty before Kibera senior principal magistrate Boaz Ombewa.
The prosecution told the court that Gakonyo had entered a plea agreement. “The accused entered into a plea agreement and is pleading guilty freely and voluntarily without promise or benefit of any kind other than as contained herein and without threats, force, intimidation or coercion of any kind,” the prosecution said.
On Monday, during mitigation, Gakonyo told the court he has two children and asked for forgiveness.
A police officer attached to Kamiti Maximum Prison had told the court he had brought a prisoner to KNH for treatment and was directed to wait for the patient on the verandah.
“I was not allowed to get in. Then I saw a strange man trying to access the ward where my patient was,” he told the court. The man was trying to access the room where his patient was through a toilet.
Gakonyo also appended his signature in the inventory, acknowledging he was in possession of the drugs upon arrest by the officials of the Prisons Service. He was handed over to the police officers attached to Kenyatta National Hospital police post.
The drugs were tested at the Government Chemist and it was established it was bhang.