A Tanzanian lecturer has been sentenced to 3 years in jail and also fined an alternative 5 million Shilling for demanding sex for good grades from a student.

Samson Mahimbo, a 69-year-old college lecturer at the National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania pleaded guilty to demanding sex for grades.

The resident magistrate Huruma Shaidi while delivering the judgement said sex-for-grades arrangement leads to the churning out of unqualified professionals.

The court heard that Samson Mahimbo was caught naked in a lodging facility preparing to engage in sexual intercourse with his student back in 2017.

Mahimbo’s student was a Second-Year first-semester learner at the National Institute of Transport (NIT) in Dar es Salaam who had failed her main exam in transport administrations and was scheduled to re-sit the paper on January 5, 2017, the court heard.

NIT lawyer, Faraja Salamba, told the Kisutu Court that the suspect called Victoria on phone and asked to meet her at an entertainment joint known as Shani Bar in Mwenge, North-West of Dar es Salaam.

“When they met, the learner was given the supplementary exam, which she sat for. Mahimbo had carried with him to the date a marking scheme. After ‘sitting the exam’, Mahimbo marked Victoria’s paper and gave her a score of 67 percent. The two, thereafter, left Shani Bar for a lodging facility known as Camp David within the same area,” the college’s lawyer, Salamba, told the court.

Salamba further claimed that the two drank a lot of alcohol before booking a room.

“The suspect had begun hugging and caressing the student before attempting to undress her, when they heard a knock on the door.

“Victoria opened the door and police officers, who had been informed of the lecturer’s plan, arrested him. His clothes lay on the table at the time,” said Salamba.

The suspect was first arraigned on August 14, 2018.