Foreigners accused of stripping, filming woman flee Kenya mysteriously
Two foreigners who were in January charged at a Mombasa court for stripping a Kenyan woman and taking her pictures and videos against her will, silently sneaked out of the country without attracting the attention of Immigration officials.
On Monday the duo, Zerbin Sascha Waldermar (a German) and Wectabe Shestavetskyi (a Ukrainian) failed to appear in court to answer to the charges levelled against them. A warrant of arrest was immediately issued.
They are facing charges of stripping and taking pictures and videos of the woman at the Kenya Medical Association Apartments in Mtwapa, Kilifi County in January this year.
However, the Nairobi News has established that Mr Sascha had written a letter to the Shanzu court explaining that he had abruptly left the country for Germany to “visit his ailing mother.”
“I apologise for not being able to be present at this second hearing date of April 15. Unfortunately, I have travelled to see my mother who lives in Frankfurt, Germany after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had to seek treatment,” reads the letter in part.
He says that he was still fully motivated to attend all future court dates in pursuit of justice with the aim of clearing his name. The foreigner asked the court not to forfeit his bail but allow the case to be reopened once he gets back to the country.
Mr Sascha indicated that he “will be in a position to return in the early dates of November 2019.”
BAFFLING
What is baffling is that Mr Sascha and Mr Shestavetskyi had deposited their passports with the court in Mombasa. So how did they travel? Investigations by the Sunday Nation indicate that Mr Sascha left Kenya on April 5.
“He went to their (German) embassy in Nairobi and was issued with a pass that only allowed him to go to Germany,” said our source, who spoke in confidence.
The German embassy did not want to speak about the matter citing data protection and confidentiality laws.
“Due to data protection and confidentiality laws, the German Embassy is unable to comment on the submitted questions. With regard to your questions about the departure of persons from Kenya and the handling of arrest warrants, we would like to refer you to the respective Kenyan authorities,” the embassy told the Nairobi News.
The Nairobi News has also established that the two foreigners had since fallen out after Mr Shestavetskyi left the country without his friend’s (Mr Sascha) knowledge.
It is not clear how and the day Mr Shestavetskyi left the country yet the police have also been holding his passport.
However, a source told the Sunday Nation that he holds two passports ever since he came to the country and only surrendered one to authorities when he was arrested by the police in Mombasa.
When we contacted the Ukranian embassy on the matter, it asked for more time to respond to our questions.
EMBASSY OFFICIAL
“I will need more time, maybe a couple of days so that I can get back to you,” said Mr Artem Makarov, an embassy official.
The Ukranian Embassy through its third Secretary for consular Issues Mr Makarov Artem said that the police had said that Mr Shestavetskyi had left Kenya by bus through the Kenya- Tanzanian border.
However, it said that it did not have any more details of when and how he left Kenya and that efforts to get into contacts with him had proved futile.
“Since Mr Shestavetskyi had not contacted us, the Embassy of Ukraine asked the Police to inform the suspect that a counselor support could be provided to him if needed, however no response was received,” he said.
He further revealed that efforts to work together with the ministry of Foreign affairs proved futile as it has never answered its enquiry over the suspect.
By the time of going to press the Kenyan Immigration department had not responded to our inquiries.
MARKETING COMPANY
Back to Mr Sascha, five days after he arrived in Berlin, the Nairobi News has established that he contacted a marketing company in Kenya with the aim of advertising the sale of his household goods that are currently in a one-bedroom apartment in Roysambu, Nairobi, where he lived.
He was then asked to pay an advertising fee via a local mobile money platform, which he said he was unable to because he was abroad.
Instead, he used his Kenyan female friend, a medical student in Nairobi, to make the payments.
The payments were then made on April 12 and Mr Sascha given a nod to advertise his items on the company’s Facebook account.
In the post, which has since been pulled down, he claims that he had to go back to the “US” earlier than anticipated hence the reason for disposing off his items.
The items he put on sale were delivered to him on February 22, by a local online company that engages in business and delivers items for its customers.
It did not take long before hawk-eyed Kenyans, who saw the posts, questioned the motive behind the selling of the items since Mr Sascha was still facing a court case.