Director of Family Fertility and Surrogacy Angecy Winnie Warigia Maina was arraigned before a Nairobi court and faced charges of obtaining money by false pretense.
She was before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot. Ms Winnie is alleged to have obtained Ksh. 2,920,045 from one Dion William Van Ardt on the diverse dates of January 12, 2018 and February 19, 2019.
According to the prosecution, the duo had agreed in a signed contract that the complainant would give sperm at the Aga Khan Hospital then Miss Winnie through her agency would give an egg donor and a surrogate mother to carry the pregnancy through IVF. Mr. William was supposed to pay a sum of 21000 USD after the completion of the whole process when the baby or babies would be handed over to him. The sum including payment for the surrogate mother was to be paid directly to the agency’s account.
The state argues that the complainant would sometimes make payments directly to the Agency’s bank account, Winnie’s bank account and her Mpesa phone number totaling to 2,920,045.
On January 12, 2018, Winnie and Dion met at Aga Khan Hospital cafeteria where he was later taken to Dr. Patel S. Praful to undergo some medical procedure to assess his semen and on April 24, 2018 Mr. Dion went back to the hospital where he retrieved his semen for freezing.
When the pregnancy was due according to the timings, Winnie started giving out flimsy excuses and before Dion knew it he was called by the director and was informed that the surrogate mother had passed away. William requested to see the body of the surrogate mother but Winnie declined.
On becoming suspicious, Mr William called Dr. Shaheen S. Varvani the embryologist who had supposedly inserted the embryo into the surrogate mother to enquire if there had remained any sperms after the procedure in 2018. The doctor informed him that his sperm was intact and that she had not fertilized an embryo for him.
