By Osinde Obare
Police in Trans-Nzoia County have arrested a teenager for allegedly selling her one-month-old child for Sh1,500 to a suspected human trafficker.
The officers at Saboti Administration Police post seized the 17-year-old after reports that she had sold the baby.
The teenager reportedly conspired with a midwife, who bought the child. The midwife later allegedly sold the child to a barren woman.
After the arrest, the teenager confessed that she was forced to sell the child to raise fare to travel to her native home from Kitale.
Area Chief Protus Wechuli said suspicious residents raised alarm when the girl, who had been pregnant, returned to the village without a baby.
“They grilled the girl about the whereabouts of the child after she arrived back to Shimo La Tewa in Kitale town where she had been working as a house help,” said Wechuli.
The girl told the chief and police officers that she was unable to fend for herself and the baby.
“I did not have money to fend for the baby because my employer has not been paying me since I was employed,” she said.
She further cited poverty at her home as another factor that made her sell the child, claiming the child could have starved to death for lack of food. The girl also claimed the child would have eventually died if she could have taken her home due to poverty.
The chief said the baby has not yet been found and police were pursing the barren woman. “The midwife and the woman who bought the baby are being sought for by the police,” he said.
