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Citizen Weekly

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Rape claim woman hits back at ‘liar’ MP

A woman who has accused a member of Parliament of raping her has responded robustly to his denials, describing him as a liar.
The woman, still in hospital, criticised those speculating on social media about what she was doing in the MP’s office, pointing out that “the presence of a woman is not consent for sex”.
“Does it mean a woman is fair game for rape if darkness finds her away from her home?” she asked.
She stuck to her guns that she had been assaulted, forced to take an HIV test and raped.
Because of the stigma associated with rape, the woman spoke through her lawyer, Mr Harun Ndubi.
But as she was responding, the man she accuses of attacking her in his private office last Saturday, Imenti Central MP Gideon Mwiti Irea, is a free man.
On Monday he was questioned for a reported six hours, but he spent the night in his home.
Police don’t seem to have made up their minds whether to charge him, with Nairobi’s head of criminal investigations Nicholas Kamwende merely saying the matter was “still under investigation”.
He was Tuesday driven around in an unmarked police car, sat at the back between two officers, but his aides, who accompanied him, drove behind the police vehicle. The MP was allowed to address the media.
DNA SAMPLE
His treatment by the police is likely to outrage women’s rights lobbies, which accuse the police of not taking cases of violence against women seriously.
The MP’s DNA samples were Tuesday taken at the Government Chemist, situated at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Speaking to the media, Mr Mwiti said: “We are here at the Government Chemist because of these allegations. They are under investigation and I’ve to comply. This is the place where I was directed to come.”
Sources told the Nation that charges are unlikely to be considered any time soon because rape investigations require DNA sampling and testing “which is time consuming”.
At the Government Chemist, several samples were taken, including saliva but the MP’s finger prints have not been taken.
Three people who claim to have been with the MP at the time the assault is said to have happened have also recorded their statements.
The MP claims 15 people were with him that evening in his own account of the events. His recollection has been full of inconsistencies and contradictions. Yesterday, the woman denied having drinks with the MP at Molly’s Pub in Woodvale Grove in Westlands.
The MP had alleged on Monday they met at Pizza Garden at 6.30pm on Saturday afternoon and proceeded to the pub where they stayed until 1am.
However, the woman said they met at Pizza Garden at 6.30pm for a meal and thereafter proceeded straight to the MP’s private office, which is also in Westlands. They were going to discuss business, she said, adding that the MP convinced her to leave her car at Pizza Garden and use his.
“The lady was a director in one of Hon Mwiti’s companies, where she had been contracted to draft a training curriculum for sales persons for the company. They went to the office that evening because Mwiti said he had a similar training manual there that would have made her work easier,” said Mr Ndubi.
He added that the MP and the woman spent most of Friday together working on the communications strategy for the company, and touring the MP’s offices at Krishna Centre and in Kangemi. At the office on Saturday evening, the woman said the chairman of the company came in, had a brief chat with the MP, and left.
DRINKING STEADILY
This whole time, the MP had been drinking steadily, sending a messenger only identified as “Titus” to deliver alcohol to him from a nearby bar, according to the woman.
Once the two were alone, the lawyer alleged that the MP then called in Dr Mwangi Muchiri who proceeded to ask the woman for a blood sample for an HIV test. When she protested, the MP asked the doctor to step out while he dealt with her, the lawyer said.
“It was at this point that the MP started raining blows on my client, telling her, ‘Kwani you want to kill me? You know what the test is for, don’t be a child’,” reported the lawyer.
After a beating described as “severe”, the woman agreed to the test and the doctor was called back in the room to conduct it. After it was done, he left her at the mercy of the MP who beat her and raped her, the lawyer alleged.
“After her ordeal, the lady made her escape by pretending to go call “Titus” for more drinks.
“She then ran out of the office and jumped into a taxi, which drove her to Pizza Garden where her car was parked. She got into her car and asked the taxi driver to follow her home,” said Mr Ndubi.
The woman’s husband took her to hospital where she was admitted at 1.30am. Her medical report showed she had tenderness in the chest and abdominal area and small bruises on her lips and swelling on her cheeks.
The hospital report also notes that she was “emotional, and had on a torn skirt and blouse”.
It further classified her case as a “suspected rape, with soft injuries on the lips, cheeks, chest and abdomen secondary to physical assault.”
“The MP is obviously lying. If my client had been with him until past 1am at Woodvale, then how did she get to the hospital at 1.30am? Unless he was the one who took her to hospital,” said the lawyer.
He dismissed speculation on social media about what the woman was doing in the MP’s office at night terming it “foolish and perpetuating misogynistic mindsets”.
“The MP should stop trying to make it look like my client was his girlfriend. Because even if she were, the fact remains that he abused her and forced her to have sex with him,” said Mr Ndubi.

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