A house help was Monday arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi where she was charged for stealing money and smartphones from her employer.

Cecilia Chumba Buhasio is alleged to have stolen Sh170,000 and phones valued at Sh150,000 from her employer, Joyce Waruguru Muganda, at Hill Crescent Estate in Westlands, Nairobi.

According to the police report, the accused stole two Blackberry phones and iPhone on October 22, 2020. She is also said to have stolen the said amount from her employer’s mobile money wallet.

The suspect is said to have received the money in three transactions of Sh140,000, Sh20,000, and Sh10,000.

The court was told that the complainant Ms Muganda reported the theft to Railways Police Station after receiving an alert from Equity Bank SMS service that money had been transferred to a Safaricom line belonging to her house help.

After receiving the alert from Equity, Ms Muganda tried to call Buhasio but she was ignoring the calls, forcing her to rush home. She would later find out that the Blackberry which had an Equitel line was missing and her daughter’s phone as well.

Detectives tracked Ms Buhasio to Shamakhikho area in Kakamega County where they recovered the stolen phones and arrested the suspect.

Buhasio denied theft charges before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku, who released her on Sh80,000 cash bail or Sh100,000 bond.