Leah Njeri Njoroge, a cloth hawker who pleaded guilty of the charge of shoplifting

Leah Njeri Njoroge

A Nairobi court has convicted a cloth hawker of the offense of shoplifting two 350-gram tins of Nutella butter from QuickMart Supermarket valued at Sh 3,000.

Leah Njeri Njoroge was convicted by the Milimani Chief Magistrate Susan Shitubi after she pleaded to the charges presented by the prosecution against her.

The state persecutor told the court that on October 4, 2024, at Quickmart Supermarket, Railway Branch along Moi Avenue Njeri committed the offense.

She entered the supermarket pretending to be a customer and took two times of Nutella butter, 350 grams each, and hid them in her handbag.

She headed towards the exit door of the supermarket without paying for the items and upon exiting the alarm alerted the security guard that she had some goods that were not scanned,

“The alarm alerted the guard forcing Njeri to stop but she ran away,” the prosecutor told the court.

The guard pursued and brought her back to the supermarket where she was searched and the items were recovered.

She was arrested and taken to Central Police Station.

In mitigation, she prayed court to forgive her citing that she is a hawker and currently does not have stock after the city-county askaris took her stock,

“Your honour county askaris took off with the little stock I had leaving me without a means of survival,” she said.

She told the court that a friend introduced her to the criminal business after approaching her looking for a job after being desperate without a way to survive.

The magistrate directed the matter to be mentioned on October 22, 2024, when the sentence will be delivered.