Imagine opening the door to your business premise, only to be met by empty shelves and a gaping hole on one side of the walls, wide enough to fit an adult.

This was the case for James Kimani Mwangi, a business person from Wanyonyoro B on Saturday, September 7.

“The beginning of September marked three months since I set up my electronics shop. Even though it had been an uphill task to get my business up and running due to the startup costs, I was doing just fine,” he begins narrating the gut wrenching ordeal.

On this particular day, Mwangi says he had gone to church as usual. Afterwards, at around 7pm he decided to open the shop for a few hours before calling it a day.

“Venye nilifungua duka nilishtuka. Nilipata mangumuu zimetupanishwa na huko na simu nilikuwa nazo zimeenda zote. Kulikuwa pia na shimo kubwa kwa ukuta.”

The 22-year-old says that he lost goods worth over Sh. 400,000.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Mwangi has been a victim of theft.

“At the beginning of this year in February, I was hawking phones since I did not have a stall. Nilikuwa nimezitandika hizo masimu kuzi display, so a customer came and when I turned to take something from my bag, I turned back nikapata ameenda na simu moja imeenda.”

But Mwangi never gave up. Instead he managed to get a loan from his bank and chamaa totalling to Sh 60,000 which was the capital used to set up his shop.

Mwangi laments, “Since the burglary incident, I have been afraid to go back to my shop and now my biggest problem is the phone company that wants me to pay back the phones and accessories that I had taken on credit.”

He goes on, “My business was just three months old and I had not yet insured it.”

With regards to investigations from the police, Mwangi says there is no head way that has been made on that front, despite reporting the matter to Bahati police station.

However, as to the question of what next? The young entrepreneur is still not sure.

Another Nakuru businessman loses Sh 400,000 after shop theft

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Bret Sanya