Shocking cases of women who take their own children's lives

Shocked residents of Lakeview Estate in Nakuru look at a plain clothed police officer collecting the body of an infant after one of the neighbours aborted the baby. [BONIFACE THUKU, STANDARD]

It was a simple call of nature that a 19-year-old woman in Marsabit County blamed for the loss of her child.

The woman, who a court found difficult to prefer charges against as an adult, and even opted not to disclose her identity, said she went the toilet after feeling some pain. She said she pushed and a baby fell in the pit latrine.

EH, as the court documents refer to her, did not bother to look back that afternoon of July 31, 2017. She walked straight to a hair salon in town.

Minutes later, someone else visited the latrine and was shocked to hear the cry of a baby. He alerted the neighbours and they also confirmed that a child had been thrown into the pit latrine.

They demolished the makeshift toilet, removed the child and rushed him to hospital.

A neighbour indicated that EH was pregnant but she was not at home. Led by the area chief, she was traced to the salon and arrested.

“The boy-child unfortunately passed on. Medical records for the accused confirming that she had given birth recently were produced,” read the court papers.

Incidents of parents dumping their children - or worse, murdering them - have become almost the norm in the recent past. It becomes even more incomprehensible when the perpetrator is the children’s own mother.

Another case was witnessed in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate last week, when residents woke up to the news that a newborn had been washed by the raging waters of Nairobi River together with garbage, and ended up stuck under a bridge.

Hushed tones

The Friday morning incident left women clutching their bellies in disbelief and discussing in hushed tones just how cold a mother’s heart can be. The infant, barely days old, had left the world faster than he came and in a most brutal way.

While the majority of witnesses insisted in public that they would never do any such thing, it can only be left to the imagination what actually drives others to such extents.

Just last month, 26-year-old Felisters Mutindi hanged her two children - a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl - before hanging herself in her single-room house in Doonholm estate.

She left a suicide note accusing her husband of having extra-marital affairs.

Earlier, in Kilifi County, a 27-year-old woman was reported to have suffocated her one-week-old son after a domestic quarrel.

The woman, Esther Wanjala, had been accused by her husband of infidelity that had led to the baby’s birth. The husband reportedly wanted nothing to do with the infant.

In the case of EH, it was argued that she was young, confused and from a humble family headed by a widowed mother, and that she had had to drop out of school in Form Three to allow her brother to join secondary school.

It was also said that she comes from a religious home that does not tolerate children born out of wedlock.

“The fact that the appellant’s community does to tolerate children born out of wedlock cannot be a good reason to commit the offence,” read Justice Said Chitembwe’s October 17, 2017 judgement.

In her appeal against a seven-year jail sentence, the judge instead gave the 19-year-old a six-month probation sentence.

But in a different case, dumping the child was not enough. The mother denied in court that she had ever given birth despite records showing she was a new mother.

Both the father and mother were charged with murder after their third-born child, a two-month-old boy, disappeared mysteriously.

The court was told that the boy was dumped in Ochimbo Hills, Homa Bay County. Only his clothes - a pair of pink trousers and a pink shawl - were recovered. The child’s disappearance was reported by his grandfather on September 2, 2013.

When the body was not recovered, the parents were jointly charged with murder. Their mental status was first examined and Dr Ayoma Ojwang’ (now deceased) certified that they were fit to stand trial.

During the hearing, the mother (ZAO) denied having given birth to the child identified as SA, and insisted that she had only two children. Her testimony was supported by one witness.

But documents presented in court by Nancy Kulei, an officer in charge of Ndiru Health Care, indicated otherwise.

Ante-natal clinic

“She went through all the records and confirmed that Z was admitted on July 16, 2013, and had attended the ante-natal clinic four times. Her name was recorded as CA from Kanyiriema village, aged 25 years and married. According to the record, this was her third pregnancy,” read the court documents dated February 10, 2016.

“She had labour pains before admission and delivered a live baby on July 16, 2013, at 1.45am after nine months without any complications.”

In his ruling, Justice David Majanja said there was no chance that a two-month-old infant could walk and disappear, and more so, could not be expected to survive in the kind of environment the parents allegedly left him.

“In the absence of a reasonable explanation the court is entitled to draw an inference that the infant is dead and was indeed murdered by the accused. I therefore find EOO and ZAO guilty of the murder of SA and I convict them accordingly,” he said.