Court orders detention of woman accused of stealing baby at KNH

A woman accused of stealing a baby at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) has been detained for five days at Kilimani Police Station pending the completion of investigations.

Milimani Magistrate Kenneth Cheruiyot ordered for her detention after the Child Protection Unit, DCI Headquarters made an application to detain her pending completion of investigations.

“I have considered an application by the investigators and taking into considerations that there is a wide syndicate of Child Stealing, I will allow their application,” said Cheruiyot.

In the application to detain her, the officers said that Edinah Kerubo Mabuka was arrested at Kongo in Kawangware within Nairobi on February 20, 2018 with a stolen baby aged three weeks.

They added that the said child was re-united to his mother who is currently admitted at KNH.

Police officer Emmanuel Kiptoo who filed an affidavit in court to detain the woman said that the nature of the offense requires more time for the investigating officers to complete the investigations.

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

He added that the preliminary investigations conducted revealed that the suspect is involved in a wide syndicate of Child Stealing that will lead investigations to Kisii and Bungoma Counties.

Kiptoo said the investigations are not complete and they requested for more time to enable the investigating officer subject the victim and the suspect to medical examination and DNA sampling procedures.

“More suspects are likely to be arrested as co-perpetrators of the offense of Child Stealing,” said Kiptoo.

Edna was saved by the police from an irate mob that wanted to lynch her upon her arrest. She was being held at Kawangware Administration Police Camp. Kerubo, the mother of the twins needed medical attention for her heart condition but it took long to see the doctors.

Concerned, the husband left the babies with two different women so that he could raise the matter with a doctor after which one disappeared with the boy. KNH had given the distraught family conflicting reports on the investigations.

A faction claimed there was no record on CCTV of the woman leaving the facility with a baby, another said a woman was actually seen walking out with a baby in her arms.

Hours later, the police released to the public a screen-grab from a security footage of a woman suspected to have stolen the baby.