A man identified as James Kimani, was sentenced to three years imprisonment on Monday after he was found skinning a cat in Nakuru town, Kenya, on Sunday.

Nakuru Chief Magistrate, Bernard Mararo, convicted Kimani after he pleaded guilty to charges of slaughtering and selling cat meat to unsuspecting customers, reports CitizenTV Kenya.

Kimani was arraigned on two counts of slaughtering a cat for human consumption in a deceptive manner contrary to the Foods, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act and slaughtering an animal at an undesignated place contrary to the meat control regulations.

Magistrate Mararo handed the accused a two-year jail term with an option of Ksh.200,000 (N1985) fine for the first charge and one-year imprisonment or a Ksh.50,000 (N496) fine for the second offence.

In admitting the offence, Kimani pleaded for leniency claiming that he had been offered a job to deliver the cat meat at higher prices.

“I was not aware it was wrong to slaughter the cats in an open ground,” said Kimani. He added that he could have “done his business in the forests.”

Kimani, a middle-aged man who was caught in the act of skinning a cat,  would have been killed by a mob but was rescued by police.

He revealed, he had been in the business for almost seven years and has a ready market in samosa’s vendors and hotels in the Nakuru vicinity.