The disappearance of 7-month-old baby Mercy Chepng’eno’s body at the Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital has taken a new twist as parents suspect that their daughter may still be alive and was swapped for a dead child.
Narrating the unfortunate ordeal that led to the news of their daughter's alleged death, deaf Sharon Saidi revealed that the doctor gave baby Mercy an injection and immediately she became unresponsive.
Unfortunately, her efforts to call the nurses to attend to her were futile because the nurses ignored her for being deaf.
That is when she resorted to calling her husband Daniel Kipchirchir, who is also deaf, to come and help, but when coming back, she found the baby wrapped and marked dead.
The parents arrived at the Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital on February 2 with their sick daughter, who was unfortunately pronounced dead under mysterious circumstances on February 3, 2025.
It has been six days now, and the body of baby Mercy is still missing, prompting the parents to suspect that their daughter may not have died but was stolen and swapped for another dead baby, explaining why the hospital cannot produce her corpse.
"Before eight, the child fed well and slept, but at 9pm, the doctor came and gave her three injections. At 11 pm, when I tried feeding her again, I noticed she was unresponsive and quickly went to call the nurse who kept ignoring me and telling me later, later," Saidi narrated.
"When we came back, my husband tried to view the wrapped baby, but the nurse adamantly refused; they only showed him the name but not the wrapped child. So, we cannot ascertain that our child is dead," Saidi continued.
The nurses directed them to leave the hospital and come back to view the body the next day, only to be taken in circles. Six days later, there is still no corpse of the baby.
According to Baby Mercy's father, he could have been content if he had seen his daughter's body, but the fact that they refused him to view the body and instead directed him to concentrate on the bill raised more questions.
The situation of Baby Mercy has unearthed the unfortunate situation that people living with disabilities face while seeking services. Martin Njoroge, the Vice Chairperson of the Deaf Community in Nakuru, has threatened to stage demonstrations against the hospital if they fail to release the missing baby or body within 72 hours.
The family had already begun burial preparations, but now they have been left in limbo, with efforts to seek justice remaining frustrated.
Following the incident, the hospital invited the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to investigate. The family is demanding that the hospital release the CCTV footage to the DCI to aid with the investigations.
