A house help was today arraigned before a Thika court charged with kidnapping a one and a half year old girl and stealing electronics worth over Sh110,000.
On 7th January, 2015 in Ruiru town Alice Njoki kidnapped Jewel Ngendo while serving as a house help. Appearing before the Thika acting Chief Magistrate Stephen Mbungi, the accused denied the charges and was released on a Sh500,000 bond.
Prosecuting Chief Inspector Nancy Muthuri told the court that on the material date, the accused who was employed as a house help by Susan Wangaru Maina also stole a Laptop worth 54,000 shillings, an Ipad worth Sh35,000, a Nokia Hand set worth Sh12,000 and a DStv decoder worth Sh8,500.
Njoki went into hiding and it took over one month before the combined efforts of Criminal Intelligence officers, the Special Crime Prevention Unit and regular police officers located the fugitive house girl and the baby.
Giving her evidence the complainant Susan Wangaru told the court that on the material date she had left for work at around 9.00AM leaving her one and a half year old daughter with the house help. However around 11.00AM she received a call from her neighbor Paul Mwangi that he had seen her house girl leaving the compound with a heavy luggage and the child strapped on her back.
Wangaru made frantic calls to the house girl but she was not picking her calls. She told the court that she immediately called her husband Lawrence Chege and together they reported the matter to the Ruiru Police Station where a search party was formed.
The accused was finally traced to Kabati town where she was leaving with the baby. The baby and all the electronics were recovered. The case continues on 9th April in the same court.