Man arraigned for ‘stealing Ksh58, 000 from woman who had hosted him for 4 nights’

A 42-year-old man was on Wednesday, January 22, arraigned at the Makadara Law Courts for allegedly stealing Ksh58, 000 from a woman who had hosted him for four nights, beginning January 14.

The court was told that Peter Gitau, a casual labourer in Kiambu, stole from Stella Wanjiru, a resident of Sanasana area in Nairobi’s South B estate on January 18.

Makadara Senior Principal Magistrate, Melissa Opondo, heard that Gitau and Wanjiru engaged in intimacy for the four nights that the suspect was hosted by the complainant.

Wanjiru told the court that on the evening of January 18, she looked for her money — Ksh58, 000 — that was stored in a safe deposit box, but the cash was nowhere to be seen. Gitau had left her house that morning, she said.

The complainant told the court that the box had been broken into.

“I saw the padlock to the safe dangling, and immediately realised the money in it had been stolen,” she said.

Wanjiru reported the incident at Industrial Area Police Station, naming Gitau as her chief suspect because “he was the only person I had hosted in my house before the money went missing”.

Gitau denied the theft charge, and was freed on Ksh50, 000 cash bail.

The case will be heard on May 14.