A 25-year-old Kenyan woman who allegedly set her ex-boyfriend’s house on fire, destroying property worth Sh120,000, has been charged with arson.
Patience Cherotich is accused of setting fire to the house located at TRM Drive in Kasarani, Nairobi on August 10, 2023.
“On the 10th day of August, 2023, at Veeland Apartments, you did willfully and unlawfully set fire to a structure used as a bedroom, valued at Sh120,000, belonging to Benjamin Obeten,” reads the charge sheet.
The accused and the complainant in the case were in a love affair but broke up.
Cherotich then begged Obeten, a Nigerian national, to allow her to visit him at his home and he agreed.
However, as soon as she arrived, she is said to have caused chaos in the house, while allegedly threatening to kill Obeten, prompting him to call for help from the apartment’s security guards, and the accused was forced out of the house.
But after spending hours in the cold, Obeten took pity on her and allowed her back into the house to spend the night and return to her home in the morning.
She slept on a couch in Obeten’s sitting room, and allegedly began banging on the complainant’s bedroom door at around 5am demanding to be let in.
Cherotich stormed into the bedroom after Obeten opened the door to ask her to stop making a mess, and the complainant got out and went into the living room, leaving her alone in the bedroom.
After a few minutes, she came out and asked for a taxi fare and Obeten gave her Sh1,200 before she quickly left.
A few minutes later, he learned that the house was on fire after he saw smoke. He rushed in to find bedding and other items on fire.
The fire had consumed the entire bed, bedding and several items before he extinguished it with the help of neighbours.
Obeten later reported the matter to Kasarani Police Station and the accused was traced and arrested after investigations were completed.
She denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi of Makadara Law Courts on September 13, and, through a lawyer, pleaded for lenient bail conditions.
She told the court that she was a single mother of a seven-year-old boy who was left without care after her arrest.
Cherotich was released on a Sh200,000 bail with a surety.
The case will come up for mention on November 14, 2023, ahead of trial on April 12 next year.
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