Joy, relief as baby boy stolen from Kisumu hospital ward is found

Maseno OCS Larry Odinga hands over the baby to his mother, Evelyn Akinyi. An elated Akinyi cradles her son. [PHOTOs: COLLINS ODUOR/STANDARD].

By Maureen Odiwuor

Kisumu, Kenya: A woman suspected to have stolen a newly born baby from a hospital in Kisumu County has been arrested.

The woman was arrested barely a month after police launched a search of the missing infant. The search was prompted by a story that was published by The Standard, in which the distraught mother pleaded anyone with information to report to authorities.

Damaris Achieng was arrested while washing the baby's clothes at her matrimonial home in Sunga village.

She confessed that pressure from her husband to have a baby boy pushed her to steal adding that someone from Kombewa Hospital, whom she paid Sh15,000, helped her steal the infant.

The arrest came after a community mobilizer, who has been assisting the infant's parents to trace the missing child, received information from a neighbor that a woman returned to the area with a baby yet she had not been seen pregnant.

"I was initially pregnant but miscarried and was treated at New Nyanza Hospital but the pressure from my husband who lives in Nairobi pushed me to steal the baby," she said.

Acting on the information, Edwin Wambia disguised himself as a community health worker and asked the woman if she was using a mosquito net to cover him.

The woman produced an ante-natal card that had scanty information. It also indicated that she gave birth to the baby at New Nyanza provincial Hospital.

"I noticed that very many things were not adding up. The woman was boiling cow milk for the infant which left me wondering why she was not breastfeeding him," Wambia said.

Some of the anomalies on the card were lack of a rubber stamp from the health facility she claimed to have given birth.

Kisumu Police Commandant David Ngetich said they have been trying to trace the child since The Standard published the child's story on February 7.

"Now that the woman has confessed to have stolen the baby from the hospital, we will have to take her to court," he said.

The baby's real parents- Mr Luke Odenyo and Evelyne Akinyi- could not hold tears when they were called to identify the child who disappeared from them moments he was born.

To prove to the officers that the baby was hers, Akinyi breastfed the baby immediately and he responded warmly.

The baby had initially declined to suckle Achieng's breast as he cried, forcing the officers to take him away from her.

"This is the same woman who was with me at the hospital prior to the baby's disappearance. I thank God for bringing back my baby. It is very painful that a fellow woman could do that to me," she said amid sobs at Chulaimbo District Hospital where they had gone to check the baby's records.

The woman's relative, Mr Kennedy Ochuka, said they never saw Achieng pregnant but were surprised when she returned home with a baby two weeks ago.