Keekorok Lodge in Masai Mara to compensate the family of a Chinese tourist who was stabbed to death in 2016 at the facility for Sh23 million.
Justice Francis Gikonyo ruled that Lodge management owed Luo Jinli the duty of care and was, therefore, 100 percent liable for her death
The judge said the management should have ensured security personnel intervened when Luo and her husband, Dong Yo, were attacked by a Chinese tour guide.
Dong Yi and her 45-year-old wife had visited the country with her family and checked in at the hotel for 10 days on August 8, 2016.
The husband stated that the family later that day went to have dinner in a restaurant within the hotel where they had reserved a table in which their names were tagged and most guests were Chinese foreigners.
Dong stated that he had gone to buffer a table to serve his food when he heard a verbal altercation in the Chinese language between his wife and another Chinese man whom he could not recognize.
“I heard a commotion closer to where my wife was, and upon coming closer, I saw a man repeatedly shouting abusive words in Chinese looking at his wife,” narrated Dong Yi.
He further stated that he later came to identify the man as Mr. Lee Changpin, who was claiming the table they occupied was not reserved for them, and he became persistent that it was his table and they must relocate to another.
Changpin then got into a verbal fight with the deceased, who persisted that the table was reserved for her and her family and pointed toward their tagged names.
Dong narrated that before his family could get back to their seats, Changpin left and shortly came back with a steak knife from one of the tables in the restaurant.
He came straight towards their table, concealing the knife at his back, and started to confront his wife again, cursing her.
He then attacked Luo, stabbing her in the abdomen, and when Dong tried to intervene, Changpin became furious and stabbed him as well, leaving both of them with serious injuries.
The guests were attracted by the commotion, and everybody was staring at them, but when the wife screamed, they intervened, and that was when they realized the duo had been injured.
Dong stated that everybody in the restaurant was staring at the commotion, and it was only after his wife screamed that the hotel staff intervened along with other guests and helped the couple to a nearby dispensary to get first aid from the stab wounds where his wife was pronounced dead.
The deceased husband, through his lawyer, Conrad Maloba, filed a suit before the high court in Narok against the hotel management for what he termed the negligence and failure of the hotel management to protect Luo from the attack.
Maloba argued that Luo was a guest in the facility, and her safety was guaranteed by the hotel, where they could have prevented the attack.
He added that the hotel security was supposed to get involved and protect against the fatal attack since the tourists were under their security whenever they camped on their premises and prayed for general damages incurred from pain, damages under the fatal accident act, for the loss of a dependency, damages for loss of life’s expectation, and special damages of Sh 2,065,100.
He also sought interest on damages sought saved for special damages from the date of judgment to the date of payment in full and interest on special damages from the date of cause of action as well as the cost of the suit and any other relief as long as it’s deemed fit by the court.
