Woman in KNH baby theft to held for five days

Edna Kerubo at the Milimani Law Court. [George Njunge, Standard]

A woman accused of stealing a three-week-old baby from Kenyatta National Hospital has been detained for five days at Kilimani Police Station.

Ednah Kerubo Mabuka who also appeared in another affidavit as Ednah Kemunto Mabuka, was detained by Milimani Magistrate Kenneth Cheruiyot after the Child Protection Unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations made an application, pending the completion of investigations.

“I have considered an application by the investigators. And taking into consideration that there is a wide syndicate of child stealing, I will allow their application,” said Cheruiyot.

In the plea to detain her, the officers said Ms Mabuka was arrested at Kongo in Nairobi’s Kawangware on Tuesday with a stolen baby aged three weeks.

They added that the said child was reunited with his mother and his twin brother at the hospital.

Police officer Emmanuel Kiptoo, who filed an affidavit in court to detain the woman, said the nature of the offence required more time for officers to complete their investigation.

“The investigating officers are still looking for other potential witnesses who were patients at the hospital on February 18, 2018 and have since been discharged,” he said.

He noted that the preliminary investigations conducted revealed that the suspect was involved in a wide child stealing syndicate with links to Kisii and Bungoma counties.

Kiptoo asked for more time to enable investigators to subject the victim and suspect to medical examination and DNA sampling procedures.