Man sentenced to 1 year for snatching phones on Nairobi streets

A man has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to snatching two mobile phones from different people in the streets of Nairobi.

Ken Otwira Captain admitted before a Nairobi court that on July 10, 2016 at around 1830hrs he snatched a phone worth Ksh.14,500 from a man along Haile Selassie road and stole another phone worth Ksh.56,000 from another man along Uhuru Highway on the same day.

Asked to explain, Captain told the court that his mother was unwell and he needed money to take her to the hospital but the job he does couldn’t cater for the medical expenses.

Nairobi Milimani Law Courts Chief Magistrate said he had considered the man’s plea for forgiveness but he was also alive to the fact that cases of snatching of mobile phones on the streets have become very rampant, adding that Captain would serve a jail term to serve as an example to other people engaging in the vice.

Captain was however given a 14-day grace period to appeal the sentence incase he feels the terms are oppressive.