James Mukangi Kimani at Nakuru High court on July 10,2018. He now says he picked the cat by the road hit by a car. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

A man jailed for three years for selling cat meat in Nakuru now says he was wrongly sentenced by the court.

The High court in Nakuru however reduced the jail term handed to James Mukangi Kimani to two years on Tuesday.

Justice Joel Ngugi said the two years will run concurrently.

Kimani told the court during a review of his sentence that the cat had been hit by a car and he collected its carcass.

He said he scared school girls with the carcass claiming he was drunk at the time.

“I was wrongly sentenced by the court. I was drunk and was only playing around with the carcass. The cat had been hit by a car and am not responsible for its death,” said Kimani.

Since he was drunk Kimani argued he slept by the road with the carcass besides him only to wake up surrounded by people. It was then that he was arrested.

The court asked him why he agreed to the charges of slaughtering an animal for human consumption in a manner that is deceptive as regard to its character, nature, value, substance, quality, merit in contrary to Food, Drugs and Chemical Substance act. James Mukangi Kimani has now denied his earlier admission that he skinned the cat. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Kimani said he did so since he was caught with the carcass.

“I pleaded guilty to the charges since I was caught with the cat carcass, the car that hit the cat did it well,” he said.

He faced a second count of slaughtering an animal on June 24 in an open ground opposite Nakuru Provincial General Hospital, which is an undesignated place, contrary to regulations set under the Meat Control Act.

Kimani asked the court to be lenient on him and reduce the three years sentence imposed on him.

“Reduce the sentence imposed on me. I have never slaughtered a cat,” he said.

State Counsel Jackson Motende said the man had pleaded guilty to the offence. The magistrate according to the prosecution was guided by law in imposing the sentence to the man.

The fine of Sh50 imposed on the man for slaughtering the animal in an undesignated place was however termed excessive. According to the prosecution it would have been Sh10, 000.

Kimani who allegedly sold the meat to samosa traders had earlier informed the court that he was framed and had no intention of hurting anyone.