Nairobi restaurant denies kicking breastfeeding mother out of their premises

Olive Restaurant official Sylvia Gichuki addresses the press in Nairobi yesterday. [David Njaaga, Standard]

A city restaurant has denied kicking out a woman for breastfeeding her baby.

Olive Restaurant officials also denied asking the complainant, identified as Betty Kim, to breastfeed in the toilet.

In a statement at the restaurant’s Accra Road branch, the managers said the aggrieved woman lied about the incident. 

“We have gone ahead to call for the lady, known as Betty, to come to us so we can be in a position to effectively deal with this issue to no avail,” said statement read by Sylvia Gichuki yesterday.

The managers also denied Ms Kim's claims that her order was delayed for almost a half an hour, which caused her baby to get hungry and led her to breastfeed. 

They denied it was during the alleged delay that they ordered the woman to breastfeed in the toilet, away from other customers, and later threw her out. 

“The lady was not ordered to breastfeed in the washroom. She was only told to cover herself. In response, she said not all children are covered while breastfeeding. She then asked the waitress if she wanted her to breastfeed in the toilet. The information was distorted,” said Ms Gichuki, adding that the customer was served four minutes after placing her order.

Martin Njiru, the restaurant’s legal adviser, said they had tried reaching out to Kim to no avail. Her claims led to street demonstrations by a group of women.