Man is caught two years later after he sneaked out of court as magistrate passes his sentence

A man who sneaked out of court while a magistrate was writing down his sentence two years ago has been arrested and arraigned in Kenya.

In 2019, after Nairobi Principal Magistrate Hellen Okwani read out the judgment, Jonathan Muini Njoroge, the convict, lied to the court orderly that he wanted to speak to his lawyer outside the courtroom.

The court orderly allowed the convict to leave the courtroom with handcuffs as Okwani was writing down the sentence.

That was the last they saw of the convict until now.

Njoroge had been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud a company Sh 680,000 (over 4 million Kwacha).

Njoroge committed the offense on August 3, 2016, with several others.

He was accused of falsely pretending that he was in a position to supply 100 volume licenses at the Office of Auditor-General a fact he knew to be false.

During the course of the trial, Njoroge had been out on a cash bail of Sh100,000 that was terminated after he was found guilty on April 16, 2019.

After his disappearance, the magistrate issued warrants of arrest against Njoroge, a manhunt that ended on April 2, 2021 when he was arrested.

When he was re-arrested on April 2, he was brought to court with one count of resisting arrest.

Police said he resisted arrest at Kerwa in Kiambu County when two officers had cornered him.

On Wednesday, April 7, Njoroge appeared before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku who set the case mention on Friday, April 9, to allow the prosecution time to produce the convict’s file.