Kenyan political activist Don Bosco Gichana has been handed a five-year jail term and a fine of Tsh300 million (Ksh13.7 million) by the High Court in Tanzania.
The flamboyant businessman was given the sentence after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering charges on Thursday last week.
Bosco, who had been charged alongside four other suspects including his lawyer Median Mwale, pleaded guilty after the prosecution read out the charges to him. He further admitted the four exhibits presented before the court by the prosecution.
He was accused of filing false tax returns electronically to the US State Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) using different names of Dale Houston, Herbert Breneman and Syron Hess among others between 2008 and 2010
The prosecution told the court that in the false tax return, the Kenyan businessman indicated addresses of his co-conspirators who were at the time living in the US.
However, the court ruled that Gichana will not serve the five-year jail term since he had already been in prison in Arusha since 2013. He will walk free after paying the Tsh300 million fine within a period of one month.
“We are happy. This is good news to us. All we have to do is raise the money. Once done, he will be a free man. We will try to do this soonest possible,” said his cousin Dunstan Gichana.
Gichana, an ally of opposition leader Raila Odinga, was first arrested by police in 2013 while he went to Tanzania to visit his lawyer Mwale who had been in detention since August 2011 on money laundering accusations.
Tanzania police officers arrested him at the Namanga border point on his way back to Kenya. Raila is said to have unsuccessfully pushed for Bosco’s release by seeking the intervention of his friend, Tanzanian President John Magufuli.
In the run to 2007 general election, Gichana allegedly gifted Raila with a brand new Hummer SUV.
We thank the government of…
We thank the government of Tanzania for doing it job to go after these conmen who steal and con their way every minute they are awake. It is about time to put a stop at these nonstop corruption. There are so many financial crimes in Kenya. You never hear the conclusion of these cases because the conmen/conwomen are able to pay their way out in the Kenyan judicial system. Thank you the people of Tanzania. Crime should never pay.