A woman caught on closed circuit television (CCTV) camera spitting saliva on food she had cooked for her employer in Eastleigh, Nairobi, has been charged with deliberate transmission of terminal illness.

PKH is accused of knowingly and willfully spitting on the food while working as a house help while having actual knowledge she is HIV positive with the intention of transmitting the disease in contravention of section 26 (a) of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) of 2006.

The suspect who hails from Vihiga County is accused of committing the offence on October 25, 2023.

Her employer HYA was reviewing the videos captured by the CCTV cameras on the day when she spotted PKH spitting on the food while inside the kitchen as captured by the cameras.

HYA, who is listed as the complainant and the first prosecution witness in the case, reviewed other videos captured by the cameras and noticed that PKH was spitting saliva on all the food she had cooked before serving the family.

She made a report at the Pangani police station and officers visited her home.

The officers searched PKH’s bag and recovered Antiretroviral (ARVs) medication that she had been using.

This led to her arrest.

HYA told police during investigations into the matter that she had hired the PKH through a domestic workers’ recruitment agency based in South C, Nairobi on October 20, 2023.

The suspect had only worked for her for five days when she decided to check the CCTV cameras covering different areas in her house. It was established that PKH has had the disease since her childhood.

PKH denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga of the Makadara Law Courts.

Prosecution counsel Joy Kaaria made an application for the suspect to be held at the Pangani police station to be escorted to the hospital for medical examination.

Mutunga remanded PKH at the police station until October 31, 2023.