A 27-year-old woman will spend an unknown time at the Thika prisons until she fully recovers from pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).
Winnie Wanjiru failed to take the full dose for treating the disease, thereby flouting the Public Health Act by posing a threat of infecting members of the public with an infectious disease.
Juja-based magistrate Martha Mutuku heard that between July 18 and August 19, Wanjiru willingly and unlawfully exposed herself to the public in Kanini farm estate in Juja without proper precautions against spreading TB.
The prosecution told the court that the accused was a client of Kalimoni Mission hospital where she was diagnosed with pulmonary TB and started her medication on March 7 2014 only to defer treatment from July 17.
She was then referred to Thika Level Five hospital. She showed no interest of completing the medication, which forced medical staff to involve the public health office to detain her till she completed the dose. She was arrested and taken to Juja police station before being arraigned in court.
Wanjiru pleaded guilty and claimed she could not take medication because she was an alcoholic and she could not take the liquor and her medication at the same time.
She, however, said she had no reason to believe she would prefer alcohol over medication. She told the court that she did not have a drinking problem but failed to convince the magistrate why she deferred the medication.
At first, she told the court she was a second year student at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology but she later confessed that she dropped out of school in form three.