Two of a dozen illegal Nepalese dancers are minors, court told

Two out of the 12 Nepalese women trafficked into the country to work as dancers at a popular bar in Mombasa by Canadian national Asif Amirali Alibhai Jetha were minors, a Mombasa court was told yesterday.

Paul Kimotho from Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, who conducted an age assessment of the 12 women, told a Shanzu Court that two of the victims of human trafficking were 16 and 17 years old.

HAZARDOUS WORK

A medical report presented in court showed the same.

Dentist Kimotho, while testifying in a case in which Mombasa tycoon Asif Amirali Alibhai Jetha is accused of human trafficking and economic exploitation of minors, said eight of the women were aged between 22 and 26 years, while two were over 30.

Mr Jetha, the proprietor of Rangeela Bar and Restaurant, a high-end entertainment joint in the leafy suburbs of Nyali, was charged before Shanzu Senior Resident Magistrate David Odhiambo of wilfully and negligently engaging 16-year-old and 17-year-old girls in hazardous work, namely dancing in a club, which was harmful to their development.

Mr Jetha is further accused of operating a business in the country without a work permit and unlawfully employing foreigners.

The State alleges that the suspect, who is not a Kenyan citizen, engaged in a business without exemption of the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act and employed 12 Nepalese women as club dancers, contrary to the provisions of the Act.

Mr Emmanuel Simiyu from Immigration Department, who also testified, told the court that the suspect’s residency status did not allow him to work in the country or engage in any business.

He said that forensic examination of Mr Jetha’s documents revealed that he is not allowed to work in Kenya.

WORK PERMIT

“A search on the Immigration data base indicated that Mr Jetha does not have work permit or special passes to allow him engage in any form of employment in the country,” he said.

He added that documents taken from the 12 women indicated that they were not allowed to work in the country.

“The subjects whose details appear below do not have work permit or special passes to allow them engage in any form of employment in the country,” said a document that the witness produced in court.

But Mr Simiyu was stood down after defence lawyer Patrick Egunza objected to presentation of the documents, arguing that they had not been made available to him.

“We will not accept a situation where the prosecution sneaks in foreign documents, which are not in our possession, and purport to rely on them as exhibits,” Mr Egunza said.

The magistrate directed State Counsel Rosemary Nandi to stand down the witness and recall him to continue with his testimony another day, after the defence has reviewed the documents.

Former Mombasa Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer Samuel Ngunjiri presented the 12 buckets that the girls were allegedly found using at the bar, and bracelets and money seized on the day the police raided the entertainment joint.

WITNESS

But the documents the officer presented showed that the Mombasa County government had licensed Mr Jetha to operate the business. 

Another witness, MN, who worked at the restaurant as a waitress, told the court that for the seven months she worked there, she observed the 12 women entertain guests from 11pm to 3am daily.

“The women were clad in normal traditional garments, with tins strategically placed in front of them. The tins had numbers and the names of the women written on them,” she said.

She added that as the women danced, the guests would drop tips into their tins. The tins were produced in court as exhibits.

The witness explained that most of the guests who frequented the club were men and women of Indian and Arab origin.

MISTREATING

“We would see the women at the restaurant at night. I didn’t know how they came to Kenya. I considered them as my colleagues. They enjoyed dancing, so it was not possible to tell whether they were being held captive in the country,” the witness said.

The woman explained that while entertaining guests at the restaurant, she did not at any point, see the accused mistreating them.

She said the restaurant was mostly being run by a Mr Erick since Mr Jetha was mostly in Nairobi.

When asked by Mr Egunza whether she had a payslip and letter of employment, the woman said she was employed after submitting her identification document.

She was earning Sh400 per night.

TRAFFICKING

She testified that the women were being brought to the entertainment joint and taken back to their residence in Bamburi by Mr Jetha and his driver.

Mr Jetha is also accused of being in possession of proceeds of crime, and the State alleges that he was found with Sh69,050 and $1,382.

The prosecution further charges that at the time of acquisition, he knew that the money formed part of the proceeds of crime, namely trafficking in persons and tax evasion.

The businessman is further accused of failing to file tax returns by the due date and failing to submit income tax returns for the year 2016 to 2017.