A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to serve two years in jail by a Kabarnet court after he was found guilty of stealing avocados worth over Sh700 from his father.
Edwin Kipchirchir had pleaded guilty before Senior Principal Magistrate (SPM) Purity Koskey to the charge of stealing contrary to section 268(1) as read with section 275 of the Penal Code when the charge was read to him.
Prosecution counsel Mwangi Ng’ang’a stated that on July 29, this year, the accused’s father, Jacob Rotich, was called by a man identified in court as Elijah Cherutoi, informing him that someone was up his avocado tree harvesting the fruits in Kaimugul village, Ossen location, Baringo North.
Ng’ang’a stated that the complainant then informed the area’s chief, who went to the scene of crime and found the accused on top of the complainant’s trees.
The prosecutor told the court that the accused harvested 58 avocados from the tree with the intention of illegally selling them.
He also told the court that an agriculture officer Kennedy Chirchir was called to the scene, who assessed and valued the fruits at Sh780.
A sack half-full with avocados was produced in court during the hearing of the case as an exhibit.
The prosecutor also told the court that Kipchirchir had previously faced a charge of stealing by servant in case E035/22
Kipchirchir confirmed the facts to be true and said that he had been forgiven in the previous case.
In mitigation, he asked for forgiveness, alleging that he needed the money to seek treatment.
Passing the ruling, Koskey stated that the accused was convicted for the offence of stealing contrary to section 275 of the Penal Code.
“The accused’s family is opposed to a non-custodial sentence due to his behaviour, and efforts to reform him had been futile,” said the magistrate.
“The accused is a repeat offender; I have perused criminal case E035 of 2022 where he was charged with stealing and was forgiven by his father, the same victim herein, after he gave an undertaking not to repeat the same mistakes to his parents,” stated SPM.
Koskey handed him a two-year imprisonment, stressing the need to deter such conduct.
The convict has a 14-day right of appeal if not satisfied with the judgement.
