<p class="ql-align-center"><br></p><p class="ql-align-center">JUDGMENT</p><p class="ql-align-justify">December 4, 1989 the following Judgment of the Court was delivered.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Section 279 (g) of the Penal Code, the Code, provides that:</p><p class="ql-align-justify">“If the theft is committed under any of the circumstances following, that is to say – if the offender, in order to commit the offence, opens any locked room, box, vehicle or other receptacle, by means of a key or other instrument, the offender is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years together with corporal punishment.”</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The appellant, Kamenju Muraya, was charged in the court of first instance with the offence of stealing from a locked motor vehicle contrary to section 279 (g) of the code. The particulars of that offence read as follows:</p><p class="ql-align-justify">“Kamenju Muraya: On the 16th day of February, 1986 at Naivasha Township in the Nakuru Distruct of the Rift Valley Province, stole cash Kshs 14,000/=, 2 pairs of shoes, passport No 8179, one camera, 2,400 U.S.A. dollars, travellers cheques, handbag, pen, identity card, films, 3 trousers, 3 shirts, 3 under pants, one over…</p>