Until a few months ago, Dorothy Katulu was the respected treasurer of a chama group. Today, she is serving a three year jail sentence at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison. Katulu has now served for one month and says that she is expecting to be released in the year 2026.

She is 27-years old and is currently seven months pregnant. Katulu says that before she was arrested and sent to jail, she had been working at a printing shop where she had been working for three years.

The printing shop was in a building she says was known as Ndaragwa. At one point, Katulu, together with other employees and business owners at this building, formed a chama and she was elected as the treasurer.

“I served well in the first two years and distributed money according to what we had agreed,” she says.

Things changed in December 2024 when she was supposed to give out contributions to members. “We were supposed to share our contributions in December 2024. Three members went to the bank and withdrew Sh2.1 million, which they brought to me for distribution,” she says.

They deposited Sh200,000 in her mobile phone which she was to use as ‘loose change’ for distribution to members. She distributed the rest of the Sh1.9 million money to the members accordingly, but before she could share out the Sh200,000 that was deposited in her phone, a friend of hers who knew that she had the money came up with an idea.

“My friend told me that there’s a game played on mobile phone known as Aviator which was easy to play and win,” she says. The friend claimed that they had played and won. They alleged to have placed a bet of Sh50,000 and won Sh100,000. “I figured that since I had Sh200,000 in my phone, I could try my luck,” says Katulu.

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She started placing bets and losing. “I would place bets in small installments and I kept losing until all the money was gone,” she says.

By this time, she had distributed money to all members apart from four members whose Sh200,000 she had just lost in a gamble. “The four members called the police. I was arrested and taken to court, from where I was sentenced to serve three years in jail of pay a penalty of Sh300,000.

“I am sorry to the four members, Patrick, Tinamoli, Catherine, and Gachanja. I am really apologetic and I am asking for your forgiveness. I am pregnant and suffering in prison and I seek for your mercy and forgiveness,” she says.

Katulu says that in court, she had promised to repay the money out of hope that her father could sell their family land and refund the four members. However, it turned out that the land had already been subdivided and could not be sold. “My father did not have anything else he could sell and I ended up in jail,” says a remorseful Katulu.