Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
A Kenyan court on Tuesday charged an American woman 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 count.
She pleaded not guilty to both charges and Muchelule ordered her held until Thursday when he will 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 center 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.
str-bkb/mvl/smc
Kenya-US-crime
AFP 312008 GMT 01 06
COPYRIGHT 2004 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
