Woman in drink-drive case passes out in court

Drama was witnessed in a Nairobi traffic Court yesterday after a woman was arraigned in court while drunk.

The woman, identified as Sharon Oparanya (above), was detained because she was highly inebriated to answer to charges of drink driving.

Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Nanzushi ordered her detention after she slept on a bench and started snoring loudly while the court was in session. The sound disrupted court proceedings

“Wait wait! why is she snoring in court; is that someone sleeping in my court?” posed the magistrate. In reply, a court orderly said the woman was drunk; that’s why she was sleeping. The magistrate ordered the woman to be detained until today (Friday) when she will answer to traffic charges.

In a twist of events, the magistrate later set aside the earlier order and recalled the woman, who was at the court cells, three hours afterwards  to answer to the traffic charges. The woman, who appeared to have sobered up, told the court that the name in the charge sheet was not hers.

Asked to produce her national identification document, she said it was not available at the moment.

The prosecution said her identification can only be authenticated by Kilimani Police Station officers who arrested and booked her.

The magistrate, however, ordered the woman to be released on a cash bail of Sh 20,000 and be present in court for a plea this morning. In the afternoon, the court was halted briefly after a standoff between the magistrate and the media. The magistrate wanted journalists to leave her court, yet they had followed all guidelines.

 that are set to cover the court proceedings.

However, the magistrate seemed not to waiver on her words and asked the journalist out.

According to the charge sheet filed in court by the DPP, the woman is accused that on September 22, 2022 at 7:35am along Ngong road being the driver of a motor vehicle registration number KDH 250R make Mercedes-Benz did drive on a public road under the influence of alcohol to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the said motor vehicle.

The charge sheet indicated that she had alcohol levels of 0.978mg /L.