House help who spat on her employer's food charged in court
A 24-year-old HIV-positive house help who was caught on CCTV cameras spitting saliva on food she had cooked for her employer in Eastleigh, Nairobi, has been charged with deliberate transmission of the terminal illness.
The woman has been accused of knowingly and willfully spitting on the food while working as a house help having actual knowledge that she is HIV positive with the intention of transmitting the disease in contravention of section 26 (a) of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) of 2006.
The suspect, who hails from Vihiga County, is accused of committing the offence on October 25, 2023.
Her employer was reviewing the videos captured by the CCTV cameras on the day when she spotted the accused spitting on the food in the kitchen.
The employer, who is listed as the complainant and the first prosecution witness in the case, reviewed other videos captured by the cameras which also captured the house help spitting on food she had cooked before serving the family.
The employer reported the matter Pangani Police Station and officers visited her home. The officers searched the accused person’s bag and recovered ARVs that she had been using. The suspect was subsequently arrested.
During the investigations, the suspect told the police that she was hired through a domestic workers’ recruitment agency based in South C, Nairobi on October 20, 2023.
The suspect had only worked for five days when her employer decided to check the CCTV cameras covering different areas in her house.
Prosecution counsel Joy Kaaria made an application for the suspect to be held at Pangani Police Station to be escorted to hospital for medical examination.
The accused denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga of the Makadara Law Courts and was remanded at the police station until October 31, 2023
