Seventeen-year-old sentenced to 5 years for stealing cooked meat and thermos

KENYA: Stealing cooked food and a thermos flask can land you in jail for five years.

A 17-year-old boy who decided to help himself with some sumptuous meal made of two kilograms of meat and rice from a relative's hotel and left with the thermos maybe for tea on September 2, 2013 will now pay for it with five years in jail with no fine.

Mathematics done by the court indicates that the food plus the thermos would cost meagre Sh1,750. The act of stealing did not please the magistrate and subsequently the judge who decided that the minor should have some time in the colds as a punishment.

Rodgers Lagat broke into his relative's hotel in Chebarbar area, Nandi County and he admitted committing the offence.

He was however remorseful and asked the court to forgive him but Justice Kanyi Kimondo could not be moved by the pleas.  The judge found that the offence attracted seven years and thus the lower court rightly convicted the young man.

Lagat was charged with committing felony.

"The sentence meted out of five years was well within the law. The learned trial magistrate took into consideration that the appellant was a first offender and remorseful. This court will not alter a sentence on the mere ground that it might have passed a somewhat different sentence," Justice Kimondo ruled.

Lagat told the court that the person he offended had already forgiven him but the judge noted that forgiveness was not enough for the charge that he faced. "It matters little that the appellant and complainant have since buried the hatchet," the judge ruled adding that the appeal filed in 2014 did not hold any weight to allow for acquittal.

According to court record, Lagat was at the time of the offence a primary school student. He argued that the custodial jail term would negatively impact on his academic life.

"I pray for forgiveness," Lagat pleaded with the court in a bid to secure a release. It also emerged that he was a first time offender.

Judge Kimondo was of the view that the lower court considered all the prayers by the boy and thus he could not set aside the sentence.

"The learned trial Magistrate considered that the appellant was a first offender. He also took into account the mitigation offered. He sentenced the appellant to five years imprisonment. The plea for mercy before this court must be looked at through those lenses. Section 306 (a) of the Penal Code provides for a sentence of up to seven years. The upshot is that the appeal has no merit and is dismissed," he ruled.