Joy as Ann Makena returns home after serving six months in prison

Ann Makena, the woman who was wrongfully imprisoned for selling alleged substandard alcohol at a liquor store in Chuka, Tharaka Nithi County where she was employed, has been released after serving six months of her three-year sentence.

Makena who hails from Kiereni, Tharaka Nithi County was arrested in August 2021 by KRA and DCI officials who raided the liquor store and determined that the alcohol being sold was missing Kenya Bureau of Standards’ mark of quality.

The owners of the establishment were not around at the time and did not bother to visit the police station Makena was being held in, leaving her to take the fall for the contraband alcohol.

Her initial bail was set at Ksh.100,000 but unfortunately neither her or her mother Stella Njoka could afford it. As such, Makena would end up serving six months of her sentence only to be released on Thursday, following public uproar after her story went viral.

“I was arrested for selling alcohol that did not have the KEBS mark. I had just recently been employed at the store and I was arrested on the fourth day of the said job,” Makena said after she returned home.

She was welcomed home by her mother and neighbours who celebrated her release. Her mother Njoka admitted that at one point she questioned why God would leave her daughter to suffer in prison but she never lost hope that Makena would taste freedom once again.

“I went back to the police station where Anne was being held and she informed me that she was going to be jailed for three years if she couldn’t come up with the requested fine. I had no means to come up with the cash and unfortunately, I had to accept my daughter’s fate, all the while hoping that someone would intervene and save her,” said Njoka.  

Makena’s homecoming was however marked with some sad news after she was informed of the death of her 20-year-old brother who passed away when she was locked up, due to yet to be established reasons.

Njoka had instructed Makena's friends who were visiting her in prison not to inform her of her brother's passing because she reckoned the news would break her daughter's heart.