A man has confessed to stealing a holy book saying he wanted to preach the word of God instead of committing suicide.
Agustine Wanyonyi appeared before chief Magistrate Susan Shitubi and pleaded guilty to the offense of stealing the bible.
He is alleged to have stolen two Good news bibles on January 30th 2022 at Naivas Supermarket limited along Moi Avenue in Nairobi, valued at Ksh 2100.
According to a Police report read by State counsel Alice Mathangani to the court, the accused went to the supermarket at around 1512hrs at the said date and stole two bible copies and hid them in his pants.
“He was captured by the supermarket CCTV footage and later arrested by the CCTV operators after he failed to pay for the same items at the teller counter” said the prosecutor.
The prosecutor also told the court that the accused had a previous record of shoplifting whereby he had been charged in December 2021 and discharged by another court after he pleaded for forgiveness.
Augustine pleaded guilty to all the facts as read by the prosecuting counsel and also admitted that he had been charged before with the same offence.
Immediately after pleading guilty Augustine Wanyonyi told the court that he stole the bibles instead of committing suicide after he found his house in Mukuru kwa Njenga had been demolished.
“After i was discharged by court i found my house in Mukuru kwa Njenga had been demolished, I opted to steal in order to read the bible instead of committing suicide to know God and preach his word to matatu passengers ” said Wanyonyi
But the magistrate asked him “why did you steal two instead of one”
In response Wanyonyi told the court that he took the other bible to his wife.
Shitubi has ordered a pre-sentencing report to be filed in court within 7 days before jailing him.
