Police hunt for woman linked to sex syndicate

A Kenyan woman said to have been working with a Swiss man to lure girls into prostitution is being sought by the police.

Kisauni criminal investigations officer Shadrack Juma said the woman was working closely with the foreigner in recruiting women into prostitution, but she escaped the police dragnet.

“There was a woman the foreigner was collaborating with. According to our investigations, they started their business in Nairobi and later relocated to Mombasa. She had fled by the time police raided the house, but we will have her in our custody in no time,” he said.

The woman, Mr Juma added, would be charged with engaging in illicit business.

Speaking during a briefing in Kisauni police station at Dock Section area, the CID officer said the 12 suspects would be charged with various offences relating to pornography and exploitation of prostitution contrary to Section (b) of the Sexual Offences Act.

He said police confiscated 15 laptops in the house that had been taken to CID headquarters in Nairobi for further analysis.

“The foreigner used to work with the UN and left employment about three years ago, according to his passport, he came to Kenya on March 1, 2013 and was supposed to stay for 90 days. He came as a tourist not as a diplomat as is alleged, we are yet to establish and confirm why he is using the UN diplomatic number yet he left the job,” Mr Juma said.

He noted that the women were being paid according to the amount of money received for their penpals in either the UK or European Union, however the biggest share went to the Swiss, who also had a similar syndicate in Madagascar.

The 11 women and the foreigner were arrested on May 9 at a Mamba Village apartment in Nyali in connection with allegations of sexual acts with a dog and have been in police custody to allow for investigations on an alleged case of exploitation of prostitution. They will appear in court tomorrow.