Woman claims MP raped her in private office in Westlands
Police are investigating Imenti Central MP Gideon Mwiti over claims that he brutally assaulted and raped a woman who visited him in his private office in Westlands on Saturday night.
Parklands police have received a complaint from a 29-year-old woman who is now admitted at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital.
The MP admitted meeting the woman on Saturday afternoon, the day she claims to have been attacked, but vehemently denied raping or beating her up.
It is the latest in increasing cases of sexual violence, especially against women and children.
Only last week, a British paedophile was jailed after he was found guilty of preying on Kenyan boys in Gilgil where he was an aid worker for two decades.
And last month, another MP was accused of sexually harassing a female member of his staff, including sending her offensive text messages. The matter was later resolved out of court.
In the latest case, Mr Mwiti — popularly known in his constituency as Livondo — had allegedly invited the woman for a business meeting in his fifth floor office at Krishna Centre on Woodvale Groove on Saturday evening.
The MP was a director of the Kenya Akiba Micro Finance Ltd, which was behind the pyramid schemes in which Kenyans lost millions of shillings. He runs a bar across the road from his private office.
RAPE ALLEGATIONS
The assault and rape allegations against him were reported at Parklands Police Station on Sunday and police said they were investigating the matter.
Speaking from her bed at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, the complainant, a 29-year-old married woman, accused the legislator of beating and repeatedly raping her in his office.
“I had been meeting him since last week and my husband was aware of the meetings and the business plans we were conducting,” she said.
When contacted, Mr Mwiti initially claimed that he did not know the complainant, but later acknowledged he knew her. However, he denied the rape allegations, saying the woman could have been assaulted by other people at his bar.
“If there was a woman in the bar, how do I know?” he asked. “Probably the incident happened within my bar. However, if there was an incident like that, let it be investigated.”
On further probing, he admitted that he knew the woman and had met her on Saturday, the day she said she was assaulted.
“I know her. She is doing some public relations work for me. She was in my office from 4 to 5pm,” he said.
The woman said she met Mr Mwiti twice last week over some projects she was to undertake for the legislator.
“I was introduced to him by my husband and it did not occur to me that he could be a rapist or someone who could harm me,” she alleged.
BEATEN INTO SUBMISSION
According to her, she was in his office at about 8pm. After ushering her in, they started their discussion but Mr Mwiti started taking alcohol.
They were four in the office, with two other men she described as the MP’s aides, one Titus, who runs the bar and a Mr Mwangi. After a while, a medical doctor (a Dr Mwangi) arrived and was ushered into the office while the aides stepped outside.
“The doctor told me that he wanted to take my blood test. I asked him why he wanted to do that and he told me that he was doing an HIV test”. When she refused to be tested, she said, Mr Mwiti physically beat her into submission.
“I asked the doctor to give me his card which he did,” she said. When she asked to be allowed to go home, she said, the MP grabbed her bag and started beating her again.
“He beat me so badly. He hit me, kicked me and I was on the floor. He continued beating me and I had to accept to be tested,” she claimed.
The doctor, who was waiting outside as she was being beaten, returned to the room and took a blood sample. She said she requested to be allowed to visit the toilet inside the office and while there, she called her husband. She alleged that Mr Mwiti started banging on the door but she managed to send a text message to her husband, asking him to rescue her.
Mr Mwiti said that the victim’s husband was his friend and wondered why he reported the matter to the police before calling him. “I know the husband. He is my property valuer,” he said.
“I was with my pastor and other constituents at Njugunas on Waiyaki Way then left for my bar in Westlands at 6pm. We stayed there until 6am and I did not leave them,” he said.