Suspect arraigned over unsettled Ksh488,000 hotel bill

The Milimani Magistrate’s Court on Friday directed that a transgender fraud suspect be detained at the Central Police Station, and not Industrial Area or Lang’ata Women’s remand prisons to avert a possible sexual harassment.

Katie Antonina Wanjiku, alias Stephen Kamotho, was arraigned for lodging in a hotel in Nairobi, but escaped without paying the accrued bills.

The court heard that Wanjiku booked herself into Marble Arch Hotel on December 16, 2020, and stayed in the facility up to February 3, 2021, accruing an accommodation bill of Ksh488,150 in that period.

When approached by the hotel manager to offset the bill, Wanjiku said she would pay at the end of her stay, which she had extended to end of March 2021.

Wanjiku further told the manager she would pay a total of Ksh1 million before checking out.

However, the suspect, is alleged to have escaped without footing the bill.

The administrator said he was shocked that Wanjiku, who was a regular client to their hotel, left the premises without paying even a single coin.

Wanjiku was, consequently, arrested and arraigned on Friday, February 12 before Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the offence, and was released on a Ksh300,000 cash bail. Wanjiku, however, pleaded for a lower cash bail, saying she could only raise Ksh40,000.

Due to her inability to raise the release fee, the magistrate was about to order that the accused be remanded at Lang’ata Women’s Prison, but the suspect asked the magistrate to lock her up in a neutral detention centre, saying she was a transgender with both male and female sex organs, and, therefore, she risked being sexually abused if detained at Lang’ata Women’s Prison or Industrial Area Remand Prison.

Chief Magistrate Mutuku, thereafter, directed that Wanjiku be held in lawful custody at the Central Police Station in Nairobi’s central business district.

The chief magistrate, however, asked the probation officer to ascertain the claim by Wanjiku that she had both male and female sex organs.

The report is expected to be presented to Chief Magistrate Mutuku on Monday, February 15.