How German tourist was duped into paying Sh400,000 bribe for nonexistent crime

A German tourist has sued for damages and compensation over what he terms false imprisonment, pain and suffering after he was arrested in July.

Mr Stefan Weideneder has approached the Small Claims Court in Mombasa asking for Sh470,000 he allegedly used to buy his freedom.
Court documents show that Mr Weideneder arrived in Kenya on July 29 to visit a female friend that he had known for a year.

He was picked up in a taxi and taken around Mombasa during his stay in the port city.

The driver also arranged for his rental apartment in Nyali.

But Mr Weideneder said that on the day of his arrest, he could not meet his friend at their usual meeting point in Nyali Centre. He invited the woman to his apartment and instructed the driver to pick her up from her house in Bamburi.

“The driver and the woman, who are known to each other, came to the apartment with two other ladies who were unknown to me. They were underage girls who were also seeking my sponsorship,” he said through his lawyer Elkana Mogaka.

Mr Weideneder alleges that after an hour, he was ambushed by the police, who claimed he had committed criminal acts by merely being in the same house with the underage girls.

He also alleges that the officers explained how the act was unlawful in Kenya.

The police proceeded to make a deal with him to resolve the matter without any official report being made.

He agreed to pay Sh1 million through a series of online transactions.

He first paid 5,000 euros (about 600,000), which failed because the bank rejected the high amount.

Court documents also show that Mr Weideneder cancelled transactions of Sh56,000 and Sh504,000 on July 30.

But he alleges that he made two ATM withdrawals totalling Sh80,000 from his account, which he handed over as part of the deal. He allegedly also made another bank transaction of 3,000 euros through the Wise app.

“My passport was confiscated as security to ensure the online transactions would execute successfully [or] I was to be arrested and charged in court with being in the presence of underage girls,” he alleges in court documents.

Mr Mogaka said his client’s passport was returned to him upon the receipt of the ATM withdrawals and confirmation that the 3,000 euros had been sent. 

“Mr Weideneder successfully managed to reverse the online transaction of 5,000 euros before the funds could be deposited in his accuser’s account,” the lawyer said. 

After being advised that he had not committed any criminal offence, Mr Weideneder reported the matter to the Changamwe Police Station.

He then sought alternative means of settling the matter out of court and issued demand letters to his accusers.

“My demand letter has been neglected. The case has not been investigated for proper actions to be taken against the perpetrators of the scheme thereby forcing me to seek redress through the civil court,” he said.

Mr Mogaka claimed his client had suffered losses because of the money illegally taken from him since July 30.

“The claimant, therefore, claims for summary judgment in the sum of Sh437,633, general compensatory damages for pain and suffering, and other compensation sums as the court sees fit,” he said.

But Mr Weideneder said he had forfeited more than Sh1 million.