A mother was on Thursday, August 4, elated to be reunited with her newborn baby who was stolen hours after birth.
The mother of the newborn identified as Dorcas Kivuva had gone to a hotel for a meal in Thika West, Kiambu county, shortly after being discharged from the hospital.
While at the hotel, a woman who was close by identified herself as Betty and engaged her in a conversation and slowly worked up her confidence.
Betty even offered to help Kivuva with the baby during their conversations before she mysteriously vanished not to be seen again.
"This prompted the new mother to rush to Thika police station, where she reported the disappearance of her child," the statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) read in part.
The DCI then swung into action immediately with the help of the newly upgraded forensic technology. Within 24 hours, the suspect had been located in Murang'a County.
According to the sleuths, Betty was arrested in Kambiti, Murang’a county where she had gone into hiding at a house belonging to an elderly woman.
"The detectives who had been joined by gender officers rescued the baby from the suspect and reunited her with her overjoyed mother, who couldn’t fight back tears of joy at the sight of her flesh and blood.
"She thanked the Thika-based officers amidst tears for bringing back her baby," the DCI statement added.
The suspect is scheduled for arraignment even as the authorities believe that she is part of a larger syndicate of child traffickers targeting women that give birth at hospitals.
For years, human trafficking has been a thorny issue across the country with many of the syndicates turning their gaze to children and newborns.
In Kenya, the majority of reasons for human trafficking are labour and sexual related, at 44 per cent and 53 per cent respectively.
From July 2020 to July 2021, 1143 cases of child labour were reported in the Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS).
