For 62-year-old granny Joyce Wairimu Kariuki, robbery is what she has grappled with for the better part of her life.
On Tuesday, she was found guilty of robbery with violence and sentenced to 35 years in prison by Loitoktok Law Courts, just a while after serving another 15-year jail term for a similar offence according to DCI.
On the new charges she was found guilty of using violence to rob vehicles in major towns among the Nairobi, Nakuru and Mombasa between 2018 and 2019.
DCI said that investigation led them to Wairimu who was the mastermind.
“Following numerous reports of stolen motor vehicles, especially lorries in Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa between 2018 and 2019, DCI detectives narrowed down on the suspect around whom the thefts revolved,” the DCI said.
For 15 years, she spent her time at the Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prison in Mombasa. She had been found guilty of six crimes among them theft, forgery and attempted theft.
Kwale law Courts first heard her case in 2005 when she was first arrested and convicted.
She lodged an appeal in 2008 at the Mombasa High Court which was later struck out by Justice M. Muya in 2013.
Justice Muya in his ruling on November 14, 2013 said that Wairimu’s appeal lacked merit.
After her release, she was apprehended in 2019 and was charged with new offences among them robbery with violence on April 23, 2019 at the Loitoktok Law Courts.
