Why clinical officer accused of raping patient was set free

A used condom linked to a clinical officer, a dying patient’s account of rape and witnesses who said she immediately reported the assault appeared to make a compelling case.

But when Mombasa Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina delivered judgment in the case against clinical officer Dias Juma Wabwile (pictured), accused of raping a dialysis patient, the evidence fell short of the threshold required for a conviction.

Crucially, the DNA of the patient at the centre of the allegation was never profiled before she died, leaving a critical gap in the forensic evidence.

On August 25, 2026, Onyina acquitted Wabwile of rape and the alternative charge of committing an indecent act with an adult, bringing to an end a case that began inside the renal dialysis unit of Pandya Memorial Hospital in Mvita, Mombasa County.

At the centre of the case was M.T.K., who was suffering from kidney failure and had been receiving dialysis at the hospital since 2023. She was in the fifth and most severe stage of kidney failure and depended on regular dialysis to stay alive.

On January 31, 2025, the prosecution alleged that Wabwile intentionally and unlawfully raped her at about 5 am while she was connected to a dialysis machine.

An alternative charge alleged that between October 2024 and January 2025, he touched her breast, buttocks and vagina with his hands while she sought medication at the facility.

But by the time the case reached trial, M.T.K. was dead. She would never enter the witness box to tell the court what happened that fateful day.

Instead, the prosecution relied on eight witnesses, including nurses, who testified that she immediately reported being sexually assaulted, a used condom recovered from the hospital and forensic evidence linking the condom to Wabwile.

The question before the court was whether that evidence proved rape beyond reasonable doubt. The magistrate ultimately found that it did not.

Renal care specialist Kezia Achieng told the court she reported for duty at 7 am on the morning of January 31 and took over from Wabwile, who had been attending to patients during an early morning dialysis session that began at 3.30 am.

When Achieng went to wake M.T.K. up, the patient stopped her and allegedly told her that Wabwile had connected her to the dialysis machine, removed her underwear and raped her.

She then directed the nurse to a medicine bin, saying the doctor had disposed of a used condom there.

A search initially yielded nothing. Achieng alerted colleague Emma Mukami and they searched again.

This time, they found a used condom tucked inside a glove pack in a nearby cubicle and handed it to the hospital’s internal security team.

It would become the prosecution’s most important physical exhibit in the rape case.

Mukami told the court that M.T.K. had been connected to the dialysis machine through her neck when the alleged incident occurred.

“If she disconnected herself, there would have been excessive bleeding,” Mukami testified. The allegation triggered an immediate response at Pandya Memorial Hospital.

Omar Ali Shaban, a member of the hospital’s senior management, told the court he was summoned to an urgent meeting at about 9.15 am by Medical Director Hobert Keyonga and was informed that a patient had reported being sexually assaulted.

A hospital counsellor was tasked with speaking to M.T.K. Within about 20 minutes, Dr Shaban said the report had been characterised as rape.

M.T.K. was taken for further medical attention, including examination by a gynaecologist, before being referred to Coast General Hospital.

Shaban and the hospital’s head of security later escorted her to Central Police Station. Police subsequently went to Wabwile’s residence within the hospital compound and arrested him.

At Coast General Hospital’s Gender-Based Violence unit, registered nurse Rebecca Mwangoza examined M.T.K. that evening.

Mwangoza told the court that M.T.K. gave a history of being raped by the medical officer who was assisting her during dialysis at about 4.35 am.

The patient also allegedly reported that it was not the first inappropriate encounter. According to Mwangoza, M.T.K. said Wabwile had previously kissed her and touched her private parts during treatment.

Mwangoza completed the P3 and Post Rape Care forms, which were later produced in court as evidence.

But the victim making the allegations would never testify, as M.T.K. died from renal failure before the trial could begin.

Her death left the court with accounts of what she allegedly confided in nurses, rather than her own direct testimony about the events inside the dialysis room.

The used condom recovered from the hospital was sent to the Government Chemist.

Maxwell Ngoe, a Government Chemist based in Mombasa, testified that he examined the exhibits, including the condom and a buccal swab obtained from Wabwile. The analysis established that the condom contained spermatozoa.

“The used condom generated male DNA that matched the DNA profile generated from the buccal swab marked C,” Ngoe stated.

For the prosecution, the finding provided a direct forensic link between Wabwile and the condom recovered at the hospital.

But the DNA evidence stopped short of answering the most important question. The victim’s DNA was never profiled.

The Government Chemist told the court that if the condom had been used during intercourse with the patient, her DNA could potentially have been detected.

But investigators had not obtained or tested her DNA. They failed to scientifically establish that M.T.K. was the other person involved in the sexual encounter.

In his defence, Wabwile admitted the condom was his. But he denied that it was connected to the alleged rape.

He told the court that he had sex with his wife, Nancy Gakii, at about 3.30 am on January 31, 2025, before leaving for work. The couple, the court heard, used a condom.

Wabwile said he wrapped the used condom in tissue paper, carried it with him to work and later disposed of it in a hospital dustbin.

His wife, who also testified as a defence witness for Wabwile, supported his account.

Gakii testified that she and Wabwile had sex at about 3.30 am and that he left for work afterwards, returning home at about 7 am.

Her evidence offered the court another possible explanation for why Wabwile’s DNA was found on the condom.

But the magistrate questioned parts of the account, including why the condom was recovered without the tissue paper Wabwile said he had used to wrap it.

“If he wrapped it in tissue paper as he stated in his testimony, how come it was not so wrapped at the point of its recovery?” the magistrate posed.

The court also noted that Gakii had not been subjected to DNA testing and her sample could have helped establish whether the condom had been used during sex between the couple.

“If that assertion were true, then her DNA would have been found on the outer part of the used condom,” the magistrate observed.

The failure to obtain her DNA meant another potentially useful forensic comparison was never made.

Wabwile, in his defence, admitted to court that M.T.K. was his patient but described her as a friend whom he had assisted with transport and medication.

He claimed she had attempted to seduce him and invited him to her home. The court also heard that the two exchanged flirtatious messages.

Wabwile said his wife discovered the messages and that he and M.T.K. subsequently agreed that she would stop sending him messages and seek assistance at the hospital whenever she needed help.

The relationship raised questions about professional boundaries. But the court distinguished an inappropriate relationship from proof of rape.

The magistrate acknowledged the possibility that Wabwile could have taken advantage of her vulnerable condition.

“It is therefore highly likely that the accused person took advantage of the situation and decided, God forbid, to have carnal knowledge of the complainant without her consent,” Magistrate Onyina said.

But the court stressed that possibility was not the same as proof beyond reasonable doubt.

“Unfortunately, the complainant died before she could tell her story,” The magistrate ruled.

The court was therefore left to determine the case from the evidence legally placed before it.

At the heart of the magistrate’s decision was the question of consent.

The prosecution was required to prove that the alleged sexual act was unlawful and without the complainant’s consent.

The court held that lack of consent could not simply be inferred from the surrounding circumstances.