BY WINSTONE MUSISI
A 38 –year-old Eldoret house help who stole from her employer utensils and other valuables worth Sh46,000 was on Friday April, 22 slapped with an 18 months jail term for theft.
Evelyne Nekesa alias Mai pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing four sufurias,cups, spoons, three mobile phones and assorted clothes, the property of her employer, Valentine Too.
While pleading guilty to the charge, the mother of seven stunned the court when she said that she decided to steal the goods from her employer after she failed to pay her salary for three months.
“Your honor, I decided to steal the goods so as to pay myself a salary of Sh9,000 which my employer had refused to pay me after working for her for more than three months without payment,” she told Eldoret Principal Magistrate Onkoba Mogire.
According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on February 26, 2022 at Roadblock estate within Turbo Sub County in Uasin Gishu County.
The court heard that after stealing the goods from Eldoret she relocated to her home town in Kitale where she was arrested a few days after committing the incident and locked at Baharini police station.
She was later traced and arrested in her rural home in Kitale and taken back to Eldoret where the crime was committed.
The court was told that on the fateful day Ms Too returned to her house at around 6pm and found the house girl missing.
When she enquired from neighbors over the whereabouts of her house help, she was informed that Ms Nekesa had been seen leaving the house with a huge loaded travelling bag.
When the complainant checked in her house she found some of her property was missing before reporting the incident to the police.
Upon her arrest the accused confessed to police that she had taken the property to compensate for her salary arrear which her employer was reluctant to pay her despite knowing that she was a mother of seven children who depended on her for school fee and other basic needs.
While mitigating her case, she begged to be allowed to return the goods in exchange for her freedom.
“Since this has been a habit of some house help, you are going to serve a jail term of 18 months to serve as an example to other house helps who steal from their employers, “ruled the magistrate.
She has 14 days to appeal.