This archive report was first published on 16 August 2019.
On August 16, 2019, a Mombasa court freed an Uber driver accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy on Sh50,000 cash bail.
Senior Resident Magistrate Yusuf Shikanda ordered the charge sheet to be rewritten after faulting the wording on the original charge sheet.
According to the magistrate, "According to law it is not “indecent act” since mouth is not a genital organ. Get a proper charge," he told the prosecution.
The driver, Fredrick Mungai Njenga, is accused of forcing the class 8 pupil to lick his private parts after locking him inside his car.
The incident occurred on December 13, 2015, when the boy's mother had scheduled an Uber taxi to pick him up from school and drop him home at around 6pm.
However, the driver allegedly stopped the car by the side of the road, locked the windows and doors, and forced the boy to lick his private parts.
The boy's aunt became concerned after the taxi took too long and went out to look for the car, finding it parked a few meters from the house.
When she asked the driver what had happened, he allegedly told her that the boy had forgotten where his home is.
