A 38-year-old blogger was on Monday charged with obtaining  sh 80,000 to facilitate the pulling down of a story that claimed two people defrauded Kilifi Governor Gideon Munga’ro of Ksh 150 million.

Stephen Sanga Barrawah appeared before a Shanzu Senior Resident Magistrate Robert Mbogo and denied the charges.

According to the charge sheet, he  allegedly approached  one Francis Ngala Karabu claiming to be a local journalist with a dossier that the governor colluded with one Loise Makena to defraud Kilifi county government over Ksh 150,000,000 through garbage collection.

The court heard that he demanded for Ksh 150,000 from Ngala otherwise he would publish the purported dossier but later negotiated via video conference to Ksh 80,000.

The money was sent to him to his Mpesa account in two instalments of Ksh 60,000 and Ksh 20,000.

Barrawah further demanded Ksh 60,000 from Karabu by pretending that he was in a position to pull down a publication in social media platform “Newsline” which had mentioned Karabu.

Prosecution Counsel Nadrat Mazrui requested the court to be allowed to amend the charge sheet with an additional similar charge of obtaining money by false pretense.

Magistrate Mbogo directed that the amended charge sheet be presented in court on May 5, 2024 when the matter will be mentioned.

He released the accused on sh 100, 000 bond with a surety of similar amount with an alternative cash bail of sh 20,000.

ENDS