Two child traffickers get 30-year jail terms

 

Margaret Kerubo Nyakoe alias MA (left) and Isabela Wambani Walubengo alias Consepta Mutenyo during their sentencing yesterday. [Standard]

Two women have been jailed for 30 years each for trafficking three children.

Isabela Wambani Walubengo alias Consepta Mutenyo and Margaret Kerubo Nyakoe alias MA committed the offence in 2015.

They conspired to traffic children below one year.

They picked up one of the children from Kapsasul village in Kapsabet, Nandi County, and took him to Nyali, Mombasa County.

In another count, Wambani was charged with making a false statement, claiming she was the mother of one of the children.

In total, the women faced 17 counts relating to child trafficking.

“I have considered the seriousness of the offence and I will sentence the convicts to 30 years imprisonment each,” Senior Principle Magistrate Martha Mutuku ruled yesterday.

One of the women was arrested as she prepared to travel to Kuwait, where her husband was said to be working.

In their mitigation, the convicts said one of the children was born prematurely and they took him to give him special care.

“My clients took one of the children after his biological mother abandoned him. The mother went to Dubai and has never come back,” their lawyer, Danstan Omari, said.

Wambani told the court she decided to take care of the abandoned child because of her motherly instincts and that she acted in the best interests of the child.

“She is very remorseful about what she did. To the best of her knowledge at that time, it was not a criminal offence,” said Mr Omari.

“One of the children is still at a children’s home, where he can only live for three years. His only hope when he leaves the children’s home is my client,” Omari said as he asked the court to be lenient.

Kerubo pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, saying she had two children and was also taking care of her sister’s two children.