By LEVY SIMIYU
AND GRACE MICHENI
Two men have denied charges of theft and handling stolen property at the Meru High Court.
The two suspects, Ian Kirimi and Alex Bundi, pleaded not guilty to the charge before Justice Thripista Cherere.
They were charged that on January 21, 2023, they broke into a shop owned by Jamlet Muriithi and stole goods worth Sh130,000.
According to Murithi, the stolen items included ply wood boards, two metal grill doors, a white sign board, support bars, iron roofing nails, 10kgs barbed wire, 30 pieces of timber, machine cut building blocks, construction sand, metallic pipes and steel bars.
The police confiscated some of the items which were presented in court as exhibits with Murithi confirming that they were his.
Appearing before the court, Murithi said that he received two calls from his neighbors informing him of the situation.
He said one of the men was spotted with a hammer in front of his store.
“I am a doctor and the owner of stall 257 in Millimani Block 1. On 21st January this year, I was at work as usual when I received a call from one of my neighbors informing me that the fence to my stall had been destroyed and the materials inside stollen,” Murithi stated.
He informed the court that after this first call, he did not react but asked for help from one of his neighbors.
The second call came in at 1p.m informing him about a man holding a hammer next to the stall, who claimed that he was sent by the owner. The name he provided was not Murithi’s.
After this call, Murithi went to the stall but it was too late because the suspect had escaped.
“With the help of my neighbors, we searched for the man and when we found him, he was in a group of four men. The neighbors identified him and we continued tracking him till he met with a scrap metal buyer. This is when I called the police who came and arrested two of then and the buyer,” Murithi told the court.
“After closely following him, we realized he had three other accomplices. They had cut the metallic items into small pieces and started selling as scrap metal. I could identify the items since I had applied a unique paint on them,” Murithi added.
While denying the charge, Kirimi who was identified as the man with the hammer in front of the store asked Murithi to provide video evidence.
Bundi asked the witness for an explanation on why one of the men arrested was released.
The prosecutor asked for more time so as to provide the video evidence to a government analyst before presenting it to the court, and also avail the investigating officer.
Judge Cherera allowed the prosecutor’s request and postponed the hearing to June 12, 2023 for further directions.
