ONSERIO V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT

February 23, 1982, Madan, Miller and Potter JJA made the following Judgment.

This appellant and a co-accused named Nyangeso were originally charged together in the court of the Senior Resident Magistrate, Kisii, with stealing contrary to section 275 of the Penal Code. Nyangeso pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to a fine of Kshs 1,500. Subsequently, a charge of stealing by servant, contrary to section 281 was substituted against the appellant. He was convicted of that charge and sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment. The new charge sheet showing the substituted charge against the appellant is not on the record of appeal before us. Our examination of the file of the magistrate’s court tells us that the substituted charge of stealing by servant appears in order.

The appellant was employed as a salesman in the shop of Ngugi Karanja in Kisii Township. On May 30, 1981, Karanja’s thirteen year old son Samuel, his wife Grace, the appellant and another employee named Mburu, were in the sho…