I am writing to request COFEK’s urgent assistance with a consumer protection matter involving Este Medical Kenya Ltd, located at The Piano, 15th Floor, Brookside Drive, Westlands, Nairobi, that involves serious medical fraud, a direct patient safety violation, and deliberate bad faith conduct against a foreign consumer.
I am a US citizen who invested KES 120,000 in a Sylfirm X and PRP treatment protocol at Este Medical Kenya between April 2025 and January 2026, plus additional microneedling sessions at the same facility.
The Incident That Initiated This Matter
On May 20, 2026 I attempted to book a routine maintenance appointment. I was informed I had been banned from the clinic in direct retaliation for privately expressing dissatisfaction with an unrelated HydraFacial treatment months earlier. I visited the clinic in good faith to seek an explanation.
The branch manager called police to the premises and made a knowingly false accusation of extortion against me to the attending officers — despite the fact that I was doing nothing more than attempting to book a maintenance appointment.
I have 13 months of WhatsApp communications that comprehensively document I was at all times attempting to access treatments and never making any threat or criminal demand. The extortion accusation was a deliberate fabrication.
Critically the branch manager, who refused to provide his name, conducted his communications with the police in Swahili—a language I do not speak—deliberately excluding me from the conversation and preventing me from understanding or responding to the false statements being made about me.
I only realized later, when the police informed me, that he had issued a false “extortion” report against me. This was a calculated act designed to leverage my position as a foreign visitor against me.
The manager then arranged for Dr. Henna Shah to give knowingly false statements to police about my clinical compliance as a patient. Specifically, she claimed that I had complained constantly about treatments, consistently disregarded post-procedure protocols and recommendations, and that the Sylfirm treatment I had invested in does not require ongoing maintenance.
This last claim contradicts basic, widely available clinical knowledge about Sylfirm X protocols. These protocols universally recognize ongoing maintenance sessions as essential to sustaining treatment results.
Every one of these statements Dr. Shah provided to police is directly and comprehensively contradicted by 13 months of WhatsApp communications between myself and the clinic — our primary form of communication throughout our entire treatment relationship.
These communications document that I followed post-procedure protocols diligently, self-reported issues, took personal responsibility without blaming the clinic, followed prescribed treatments without complaint, and postponed my own appointments when my skin was not ready. Dr. Shah made these statements to law enforcement knowing they were false.
Dr. Shah’s shocking and unethical conduct prompted me to research her qualifications for the first time; what I discovered constitutes a serious patient safety violation.
A Direct Patient Safety Violation
Dr. Shah holds a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Nairobi. She is a dental surgeon — not a dermatologist and not a medical doctor in any specialty relevant to skin treatment. Yet for approximately seven months she was systematically presented to me as the clinic’s qualified dermatologist. When I directly asked whether she was a certified doctor I was told yes.
Most critically — Dr. Shah prescribed systemic oral antibiotics — Lymecycline 408mg — for a skin condition outside her registered scope of practice. I took this medication in the full belief that it was prescribed by a qualified dermatologist.
I would never have taken this medication had I known it was prescribed by a dental surgeon with a Bachelor’s degree who had no qualifications in dermatology. While dental surgeons in Kenya have limited prescribing authority within their dental scope of practice, prescribing systemic antibiotics for post-treatment skin reactions falls entirely outside that scope.
A dental surgeon is not qualified to assess the contraindications, drug interactions, or appropriate dosing of systemic antibiotics for dermatological conditions. By issuing this prescription under a false professional designation, the clinic directly put my health and safety at risk. This is not merely a consumer complaint — it is a patient safety violation with potential personal injury dimensions.
Dr. Shah also directed my entire skin treatment protocol over seven months under this false designation. Official appointment reminders described sessions as “dermatology reviews and treatments” and the clinic referred to her explicitly as “our dermatologist” as recently as April 2026.
Deliberate Actions Against a Foreign Visitor
The totality of the clinic’s conduct represents a pattern of deliberate bad faith actions against me as a foreign visitor. The branch manager called police over a routine booking request, made a false extortion accusation, conducted police communications in Swahili to exclude me from understanding what was being said about me, arranged for false statements to be given to police about my medical compliance, had staff film me while distressed without my consent, and refused to provide me with my own medical records.
Throughout all of this the clinic knew I was a US visitor with limited local recourse. A foreign visitor subjected to a false criminal accusation at a police station in a language she cannot understand, by a clinic whose co-founder has been prescribing medication outside her registered scope of practice, represents a serious and deliberate harm to a vulnerable foreign consumer.
Abuse of Market Dominance
Este Medical Kenya holds an exclusive commercial footprint for Sylfirm X technology in Nairobi. By banning me in retaliation for private feedback the branch manager deliberately weaponized this dominance — cutting off my access to the only facility in Nairobi capable of providing maintenance treatments my KES 120,000 investment depends on, rendering that investment entirely worthless.
Withholding of Medical Records
When I requested copies of my own medical records the clinic refused. I have an audio recording of my presence at the clinic at the time this request was made.
Remedies Sought
Full refund of all treatments plus compensation for: seven months of treatment overseen by a dental surgeon falsely presented as a dermatologist; a prescription taken in reliance on that false designation that directly put my health at risk; a false extortion accusation made to law enforcement; being deliberately excluded from police communications as a foreign visitor; emotional distress; being filmed without consent; refusal of medical records; and deliberate weaponization of a market monopoly.
I have filed formal complaints with the DCI, KMPDC, and CAK. I am seeking COFEK’s urgent assistance in pursuing these remedies and ensuring this clinic is held accountable for conduct that put a patient’s health directly at risk and deliberately targeted a foreign consumer.
I am traveling internationally in approximately one week and would welcome an urgent consultation before I depart.
Please find attached the following documentary evidence in support of this complaint:
Full WhatsApp communication history between myself and Este Medical Kenya — April 2025 to May 2026.
Official Este Medical Kenya Ltd prescription form for Lymecycline 408mg issued by Dr. Shah dated January 28th 2026.
Screenshot of official appointment reminder dated March 22nd 2026 describing session as “dermatology review and treatment.”
Screenshot of clinic WhatsApp communication dated April 27th 2026 explicitly referring to Dr. Shah as “our dermatologist.”
Screenshot of clinic WhatsApp communication dated September 2025 confirming Dr. Shah was “our doctor, not the aesthetician” in direct response to my question about her qualifications.
Screenshot of Este Medical Kenya website dentistry page correctly listing Dr. Shah as “founder and lead dentist” with dental surgery qualifications.
Screenshot of Este Medical Kenya website dermatology pages marketing “our highly experienced dermatologists in Nairobi.”
