PrideInn Paradise Hotel has disputed claims that a woman photographed in the company of an elderly white man at one of its branches in Shanzu, Mombasa, is underage.
A Twitter user had raised alarm and shared photos of people he termed as guests at the hotel. He claimed that a guest who was staying at the hotel was worried that the woman in the company of a man captured in the picture was underage.
“Possibly they check age of guests. A guest staying at this hotel ( referring to PrideInn) is worried that one of these two (referring to the photo he shared online) is underage,” he tweeted.
The hotel management dismissed the claims as propaganda.
The hotel's operations manager John Yegon said that the woman in the viral photo is 32 years old.
Yegon indicated that the hotel's legal team had taken over the matter to establish the motive of the person who took the photo and why they shared it on social media.
PrideInn terms act as malicious
Terming the act as malicious, the official said the photographer should have confirmed the woman's age from the management before posting it on social media, a move he said violated the couple's right to privacy.
"The act was very malicious. A team drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and those from the Tourist Police Unit have since interrogated the couple and are fully satisfied with the age of the alleged woman," Yegon said.
Identification documents seen by K24 Digital show that the woman was born on 6/4/1990, while his lover, a Dutch national, was born on 13/1/1951.
On his part Julius Ogogo, the Executive Director Commission for Human Rights and Justice lauded the officers from the Tourist Police Unit drawn from Kisauni for their timely intervention in establishing the woman's age.
"My organization took over the matter. It was put on social media due to the rampant sex tourism targeting minors along the coastal region. However, our investigations have established that the allegations on social media were false, and the couple has since recorded statements with us and police as well as the French national who took the photo," Ogogo said.
