- Dong Yi was seriously wounded during the incident of August 8, 2016.
- Three years later, Dong Yi sued the hotel for negligence arguing that his wife would not have been attacked and killed had the hotel put in place proper security measures.
Image: FILE
A Narok court has ordered a Maasai Mara safari lodge to pay a Chinese widower Sh427 million for the killing of his wife at the facility's restaurant in 2016.
Dong Yi's wife Luo Jinli was stabbed to death at the Keekorok Lodge in Maasai Mara following a brief fight over a restaurant table at the luxurious safari lodge.
Dong Yi was seriously wounded during the attack of August 8, 2016.
Three years later, Dong Yi sued the hotel for negligence arguing his wife would not have been attacked and killed had the hotel put in place proper security measures.
Through lawyer Conrad Maloba, the Chinese man sought for damages citing loss of dependency. He said his then 45-year-old wife was the sole bread winner for the family.
He also asked the court to award him Sh727,000 being the funeral expenses. The Chinese couple had just landed in the Mara for a holiday before the tragic incident hours later. It was their first time in Kenya.
Dong Yi and his wife had just returned from a game drive in the Maasai Mara National Game Reserve at about 7pm and with the help of their tour guide, went straight to their dining table which had been reserved using a name plate.
He asked his wife to wait at the table while he got her food. The 84-person seater restaurant was not full that evening and many guests were already leaving for their rooms.
Dong Yi then heard a conversation between his wife and a strange man. It lasted just a minute. They spoke in Chinese.
The stranger who was identified as Lee Changqin wanted the couple to vacate their table which he claimed had been reserved for him.
The altercation ensued again and the two spoke at the top of their voices. It again lasted less than a minute before Lee dashed and reached for a steak knife and stabbed both Dong Yi and his wife.
In his court papers, Dong Yi accused the Keekorok Lodge of negligence saying its managers failed in their duty of care to ensure visitors would be reasonable safe while using their premises.
In his analysis of the matter, Justice Francis Gikonyo found it surprising that the hotel managers acknowledged the quarrelling guest were speaking in Chinese at the top of their voices yet no one responded from the hotel.
He said fighting in restaurants is not strange or unforeseeable and that such premises ought to place workers trained on security at strategic positions just in case of a security lapse.
"Use of knives for eating as weaponry is also foreseeable. The defendant did not take reasonable measures to ensure the security of the plaintiff and the deceased in the restaurant," the court ruled.
As such, the judge awarded Dong Yi Sh100,000 for the pain and suffering he endured at the hotel during the attack and another Sh427,653,666 in damages for loss of dependency as a result of the death of his wife.
The court also ordered the safari lodge to pay Dong Yi a further Sh727,000 for funeral expenses.
"The defendant is 100 per cent liable," the court said in its judgment delivered on Thursday last week.