I didn't steal, he paid me for good sex — ex-househelp

It wasn't theft, it was payment for good sex. 

That's what ex-househelp Ruth Khaecha said, denying she stole Sh1,350,000 from employer Paul Mwang at Balozi Estate in Muthaiga. She said she earned the money, Sh800,000 as a reward for providing "good sex". 

That's what she testified on January 15.

But after an intriguing hearing on Friday last week, a Makadara chief magistrate Heston Nyaga found Khaecha guilty of stealing from Mwangi and sentenced her to three years in prison.

The court also ordered that the land she bought worth Sh570,000 be sold to recover the cash stolen from her boss. The accused had also given her father Sh500,000 and Sh70,000 more was found in her handbag. 

During the trial, the 28-year-old househelp said, "I played my role well in bed."

She started working on November 25 and had worked for a month before Mwangi started making advances, she told the court.

Khaecha said she then started to develop feelings for him and after telling him her difficult life's story, Mwangi promised to help her," she said.

Whenever Mwangi was home and his wife was gone, they had sex, she testified.

On January 3, she testified, Mwangi came home early with a bag containing envelopes. He told her the envelopes contained money and even showed her.

They then had sex before Mwangi placed one envelope on her chest, she told the court. 

Khaecha said she decided to leave because his wife, Jane Wairimu, seemed suspicious "based on how quarrelsome she had become".

She stated that she worked for two and a half months, earning Sh6,500 per month.

Mwangi, she said, gave her Sh800,000 which she kept in her bedroom and only got to count it after she got to her home in Kakamega.

“It was not the first time but this time I decided to give him perfect service like never before, as I was aware it was going to be a life-turning moment for me and my children,” she told the court.

“I asked him what was in the envelopes when he started caressing me and he said it was money. I took one of the envelopes and confirmed that."

But Mwangi told the court that last year on December 28, he withdrew Sh500,000 from KCB Bank and hid it in his wardrobe in the bedroom.

He again withdrew Sh700,000 on January 10 from Equity Bank, he said. 

Mwangi stated that on January 15, a security guard at his Balozi Estate in Muthaiga called him and asked whether he was aware that his househelp was leaving. He said he and his wife were not aware of that.

“When I went home I found the gate locked and the front door unlocked. The accused person was not there and I tried to call her but to no avail,” he testified.

He said that he later realised the house keys were missing. Mwangi said the CCTV footage showed Khaecha leaving with a bag.  

In his ruling, the magistrate said the accused did not deny taking possession of the complainant’s money. However, he said, she disputes the circumstances under which she took the money and the amount she's alleged to have stolen.

“The prosecution demonstrated through its witnesses that the accused person made away with the money when she was left alone in the house through CCTV footage,” Nyaga ruled. 

The prosecution provided evidence that the accused bought land, gave her father part of the money and some more was found in her purse. 

“This amount already exceeds the Sh800,000 mark.”

“The accused person was left in the house with full knowledge that there was money in the house. She saw an opportunity to enrich herself and she took it. She lied to the guards that she had been sent to repair clothes and shoes and by the time the guards realised this was not the case, she was long gone." 

When she was tracked down in Kakamega, she had already purchased land and other items including motorcycles, the magistrate said.

Edited by R.Wamochie