US woman 'raped' street boys

2006-01-31 22:19

Nairobi - A Kenyan court charged an American woman on Tuesday with sexually assaulting several street boys at a Nairobi shelter where she was doing volunteer rehabilitation work.

Nairobi chief magistrate Aggrey Muchelule charged Sherry Hsian Hwa Chow, 25, with "indecently assaulting five boys at the Bahati children's rehabilitation centre in Nairobi between 2004 and last year" and a separate immigration charge.

She pleaded not guilty to both charges and Muchelule ordered her held until Thursday when he would rule on her application for bail after hearing from police, who said they were taking statements from other alleged victims.

The judge set an April 18 trial date for Hwa Chow who arrived in Kenya in 2004 as a volunteer to help at the Bahati Centre in a crime-prone, low-cost housing belt in eastern Nairobi.

In addition to the rape charge, she has been accused of failing to register herself as an alien in violation of Kenya's Immigration Act, which requires foreigners seeking work in the nation to have proper documentation.

If convicted of sexual assault, Hwa Chow will face a jail sentence to be determined by the judge, while a guilty verdict on the immigration charge could bring a maximum of six months in prison or a fine and deportation.

Nairobi is teeming with tens of thousands of scruffy, glue-sniffing street children and a 2003 government plan to place them in proper housing and offer them vocational training has floundered due to a lack of funds and enforcement.

- AFP