Calvin Linus Chivondo, a 21-year old man who was sentenced to jail for a year for shoplifting goods worth Kshs 3000 at Naivas has narrated the events that led to the incident.
Chivondo had been sentenced to jail and was also given an option of paying Kshs100,000 to be freed on bail last week for stealing the goods to feed his family, a wife and 4-months old baby, that had gone hungry.
Kenyans sympathized with him with some wondering how he could be able to raise his bail when the Ksh3000 for shopping was not available but within no time enough money was raised to bail him out through the help of comedian YY. Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko also chipped in, changing Chivondo’s life in a blink of an eye.
Speaking to YouTuber Mungai Eve, the father of one said that he did not have any money to buy his family food on the fateful day and he found himself at Naivas. Before that, he had even skipped going home because he was ashamed of returning home empty handed.
“On Sunday(April 10), I tried asking people to buy me food but no one was willing, by the time it was at night, I only had Kshs 30. As I was walking, I met a certain madam at Naivas, she had a big shopping, I requested her to allow me to carry the luggage for her and she said she was waiting for Uber,” Chivondo recalled.
He decided to borrow her some milk and bread but he got none and that is how he found himself inside the supermarket. That was his first time attempting theft but the soldiers at the supermarket claimed they had caught him before and added more wrongs to his list.
“When I was caught, they told me to relax and that they would buy me food worth Kshs.300, instead, I was locked in a room only for the police to come and arrest me, after spending ours in the rooom” he said.
Some of the things he picked from the supermarket include Cooking oil, rice, sugar, tea leaves and a baby feeding plate. He however did not hide any of the items.
“The items were in the shopping basket, I used the 30 bob to purchase a shopping bag and started putting the items on the bag.
“When I started putting them in the bag, the cashier asked whether I had paid for the goods and I said no. She called the soldier,” Chivondo said.
When he was taken to court, he was surprised that his sentence was so huge yet his offense was not so big compared to that of the other offenders.
Currently, Chivondo has been employed by Sonko and he is in charge of the food containers. He will also be moving from Pipeline to a better place next with the help of Sonko.
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