Baobab Beach Resort and Spa Limited has been sued over racial discrimination by a managing director of a Kenyan tour company.
The High Court was informed by the Plaintiff that the hotel based at Diani Kwale County discriminated Africans, by allegedly being racists and only allowing white skin people to access the hotel.
Dancun Muriuki, the Managing Director of Destination Africa DMC Limited, has accused the resort of discrimination and of barring him from accessing the hotel.
He stressed to the court that during his visit to the hotel to pick two tourists from Europe, the management exposed his image as a person who is a fraudster, untrustworthy and ridiculed him not only before his guests.
According to Muriuki, on arrival at the main gate, he and his driver were denied entry and obstructed from entering.
“The guards manning the gate informed us they were under strict instructions not to allow too small operators access to the hotel,” Muriuki said.
“We remained at the gate for a considerable period of time as we observed the guards allowing access to the hotel in a selective and discriminatory manner, on the basis of race, colour, birth and social origin.”
Appearing before Judge Anthony Mrima, Muriuki added that on February 9, 2012, he returned to the same hotel in the company of a driver and two white guests who were allowed to access the hotel.
“I believe the two incidents on February 7 and 9 taken in isolation of each other and jointly, I really believe that the respondent allows the policy of discrimination on race, color and social origin in its operation,” Muriuki said.
The Plaintiff is seeking the Judge to order the said hotel management to publicly apologize to him for destroying his reputation by placing an advertisement in the Country local media stations to apologise for maliciously defaming his image and his company.
The resort filed an application to the court seeking to bar the media from covering the case, however the court dismissed the application stating that the case against is of public.
