A 62-year-old woman will spend the next 35 years behind bars after being convicted of robbery with violence by the Loitoktok Law Courts.

According to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Joyce Wairimu Kariuki had previously served a 15-year jail term but resumed her thievery after being released from prison.

Wairimu was found guilty of using violence to steal vehicles in Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa on diverse dates between 2018 and 2019.

“Following numerous reports of stolen motor vehicles, especially lorries in Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa between 2018 and 2019, DCI detectives narrowed down on the suspect around whom the thefts revolved,” the DCI said.

Wairimu served 15 years at the Shimo La Tewa Maximum GK Prison in Mombasa, for six different offences, including theft, forgery, attempted theft, among other crimes.

She was first arrested in 2005, prosecuted and found guilty by the then Kwale Senior Resident Magistrate D.O. Ogembo.

The convict had, in 2008, filed an appeal at the High Court in Mombasa, but her application was dismissed by Justice M. Muya, who, on November 14, 2013, ruled that Wairimu’s appeal was “convoluted, disjointed and without merit”.

Following her arrest early last year, Wairimu was arraigned at the Loitoktok Law Courts on April 23, 2019.