Court clears woman of 18 kg bhang charge; owner admitted the bags
The High Court in Nakuru quashed Mary Kerubo Onkaga's trafficking conviction on 20 July 2006, finding she was merely travelling with the owner of two bags holding 18 kilograms of bhang seized on the Narok-Mai Mahiu road. Her co-accused, who owned the drugs, had pleaded guilty and served her term.
On 31 October 2003 at about 3.30 p.m., Mary Kerubo Onkaga and Moreen Moraa Mogere were arrested in a Toyota Shark matatu, registration KAP 205X, on the Narok-Mai Mahiu road at Ntulele, where two bags holding 18 kilograms of bhang valued at Kshs 36,000 were found.[1]Mogere pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment plus a Kshs 30,000 fine, while Onkaga denied the charge, went through a full trial, and received the same sentence.[1]Mogere later appealed her sentence separately and had it commuted to the period already served on 1 February 2006.[1]
On 20 July 2006 the High Court at Nakuru allowed Onkaga’s appeal against conviction.[1]Justices M. Koome and L. Kimaru accepted her defence, corroborated by Mogere as a defence witness, that the bags belonged to Mogere and that Onkaga was only travelling with her from Kisii to Nairobi in search of work as a maid, with Mogere paying the fare.[1]The court held the trial magistrate should have acquitted her, set aside the conviction and sentence, and ordered her set at liberty.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Charged
2
Convicted
1
Acquitted
1
Cannabis
18 kg
Agency type
Court
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (18 kg)
Activity
Trafficking
Setting
Vehicle
Case stage
Acquitted
Sources
High Court of Kenya at Nakurusheriahub.comMary Kerubo Onkaga v Republic [2006] eKLR. Criminal Appeal No. 141 of 2004; 31 October 2003 seizure of 18 kg of bhang in matatu KAP 205X at Ntulele, conviction after full trial, conviction quashed and appellant set at liberty
Open questions the AI reported
Only the appeal judgment could be opened and no separate newsroom account of the case was found.
The co-accused's separate sentence appeal, Criminal Appeal No. 503 of 2003, is a different record left out here.
No photograph of the seizure or the proceedings with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened source.
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Geoffrey Lingori, 58, was sentenced to 12 months in prison without the option of a fine after admitting in an Eldoret court that he grew 34 kg of cannabis on his land in Malel, Kapseret. Detectives raided the farm on 15 August 2026 on a tip-off; Lingori first said it was his main income, then that he used it for joint pain.
Vincent Odhiambo was convicted of trafficking 266.2 kg of bhang worth Sh7.98 million and sentenced to a Sh24 million fine or 10 years in prison in default. Prosecutors proved he moved the cannabis in a Toyota Fielder on the Kapchorwa-Torongo murram road in Kamwosor, Keiyo South, on 18 January 2026; six witnesses testified.
Cannabis 266.2 kgPrison 10 years in defaultFine KES 24,000,000
Daudi Kalamba was sentenced to 10 years in prison or a Sh1 million fine after a Voi court convicted him of trafficking 9.3 kg of bhang valued at Sh279,000. Police found him cultivating suspect plants after a June 15, 2026 tip-off to Kamtonga Police Station; Prosecution Counsel Nelson Ogeto proved the case before Principal Magistrate Hosea Mwangi.
Cannabis 9.3 kgPrison 10 years in defaultFine KES 1,000,000