‘Female’ athlete who was arrested for impersonating nurse is a man
A Kenyan ‘female’ athlete who was arrested last year for impersonating a female nurse at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital is a man, an Eldoret court was told.
Shieys Chepkosgei, alias Hillary Kiprotich, had denied the charge and was released on Sh40,000 bail was on Monday charged with false pretences after a medical examination done at an Eldoret hospital showed the accused has male reproductive organs.
The latest development came after the accused’s lawyer Elijah Momanyi moved to court to compel the police to release the accused person’s national ID card, passport and birth certificate, which had been confiscated.
The lawyer told the court that his client has been unable to carry out bank and other essential transactions without the documents.
The investigating officer however said the documents are exhibits and cannot be released until the case is concluded.
The prosecution also told the court that the police are looking for another ID card on which the accused was registered by the registrar of persons as Hillary Kiprotich.
Eldoret Chief Magistrate Linus Kassan declined to order the police to release the documents and instead urged the prosecution to hasten the case to settle issues raised by the defence lawyer.
He directed the case be heard on February 24.
The accused hit the headline last year when police officers at Eldoret West Police Station found out ‘she’ possessed male physical features while in custody despite claiming that ‘she’ was a woman.
The suspect later claimed to be a transgender and demanded to be given special treatment while in custody.
An athlete with a similar name was in 2017 sanctioned by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (Adak) for using banned performance enhancing substances.
The athlete was charged with using banned testosterone, androsterone and etiocholanone at the Hari Sukan Negara Half Marathon in Malaysia on October 8, 2016. She was slapped with a four-year ban.
During arrest of the Eldoret suspect, he was found dressed in a nurse’s uniform complete with a badge that indicated that she works at the Emergency Section of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital after other nurses grew suspicious and alerted the police.