Sheep Snip

Picture of a sheep. The two Delamare staff stole a sheep (different from the one in picture) after their salaries were delayed (Photo/ Google).

By Lorna Abuga.

If you are employed to take care of your employer’s livestock and the employer delays your salary will you ‘steal’ one of the livestock you are taking care of and pay yourself?

Well, that is exactly what two employees at the Delamare Farm Limited decided to do recently at the company’s Soysambu ranch in Gilgil, Nakuru county.

Charles Tobiko and Lelaike Ole Lepirkine stole a sheep at the Delamere farm before they were arrested and charged in court. And when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Joel Ng’eno at the Nakuru Law Courts on Monday June 22 they quickly pleaded guilty saying they were paying themselves their salaries.

“Our salary had been delayed,”

said Tobiko while responding to the Magistrate’s question on why they had committed the crime.

Had they sold the sheep it would have fetched them sh5,000 meaning each of them would have gone home with sh2,500, and that is if they were to share the loot equally. However they never got to sell the sheep as they were arrested by the farm’s Chief Security Officer Jeff Mitto just in time.

“We are the sole breadwinners in our families,”

said Tobiko while pleading with the Magistrate to be lenient with them.

The two were fined sh5,000 and asked to have an out of the court settlement with their employer.

Meanwhile, another court in Nakuru sentenced a middle aged man to 20 years imprisonment for defiling his daughter aged 13.

The court heard that, the accused, Samuel Njoroge had separated with his wife a few years back and had been left with the sole responsibility of taking care of the girl. The court was told that Njoroge took advantage of the minor and on several occasions indulged the girl in the indecent act.

The girl at first reported the incident to her grandmother, who unfortunately, did not report the matter to the relevant authorities.

The recurrence of the beastly act prompted minor to seek intervention from a close neighbor who in turn reported the matter to the Chief at their Maili Kumi residence in the outskirts of Nakuru who in turn informed the police.

The man was then arrested and a case against him was started. The court was told that on the several occasions the man had been defiling the girl for two years between the year 2012 and 2014.

The accused had denied the charges and had since been in custody.

In her ruling however, Resident Magistrate Mary Otindo said the Prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt to warrant the sentence.

“It took the prosecutor’s intervention to summon five witnesses who in their testimony confirmed the charges read against the accused,” she said in her ruling.

“The victim’s medical report obtained from Maili Kumi Hospital also established that she had indeed been defiled,” the Magistrate said.

Defilement cases are very common in the Nakuru Law Courts. In most cases they are committed by male relatives and neighbors.

In March this year, one court in Nakuru sentenced a man to 75 years in prison for an indecent act with his daughter aged 14.