JUDGMENT
December 4, 1989 the following Judgment of the Court was delivered.
Section 279 (g) of the Penal Code, the Code, provides that:
“If the theft is committed under any of the circumstances following, that is to say – if the offender, in order to commit the offence, opens any locked room, box, vehicle or other receptacle, by means of a key or other instrument, the offender is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years together with corporal punishment.”
The appellant, Kamenju Muraya, was charged in the court of first instance with the offence of stealing from a locked motor vehicle contrary to section 279 (g) of the code. The particulars of that offence read as follows:
“Kamenju Muraya: On the 16th day of February, 1986 at Naivasha Township in the Nakuru Distruct of the Rift Valley Province, stole cash Kshs 14,000/=, 2 pairs of shoes, passport No 8179, one camera, 2,400 U.S.A. dollars, travellers cheques, handbag, pen, identity card, films, 3 trousers, 3 shirts, 3 under pants, one over…