Her husband believed she was pregnant, she lied. Now she has been arrested.

A 26-year-old woman who lives in Nairobi was on Tuesday night arrested on allegations of faking her pregnancy and trying to buy an infant from its biological mother.

Sheila Adhiambo had — allegedly — entered into a business deal with an expectant destitute woman identified as Phoebe Achieng.

According to Achieng, Adhiambo was to buy her baby upon birth.

All through, the suspect made her husband believe that she was expecting their first child.

The aborted deal was hatched several months ago, when Adhiambo bumped into Achieng on the streets of Pipeline area in Embakasi South Constituency.

Achieng, who was living on the streets of Eastlands, Nairobi, had moved out of her matrimonial home in Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums after her husband abandoned her — and life, she said, became unbearable, thereafter.

The two allegedly met at a hospital in Pipeline, where Achieng had enrolled for antenatal care.

The 24-year-old says Adhiambo convinced her into selling her unborn baby.

All this while, Adhiambo was allegedly telling her husband that she was expectant — and together, they did the countdown to her delivery date.

And Tuesday, July 17, was supposed to be Adhiambo’s due date, her husband believed.

Adhiambo allegedly told her spouse that she was to deliver at the Pumwani Hospital.

The elated man, reportedly, sent his wife Ksh4, 000 as a contingency against any emergency.

Adhiambo, her husband thought, had checked herself into the facility, and, so, he paid her a visit after work.

Upon reaching the hospital, he confirmed with the records at the facility’s reception that his wife had, indeed, checked in at the medical centre.

Shock on him, when he arrived at the ward in which his wife had reportedly been booked into. A stranger — 24-year-old Phoebe Achieng — was staring at him while still in postpartum pains.

Confused, Adhiambo’s husband asked nurses at the hospital to confirm where his wife was admitted. The confirmation yielded a response reiterating the previous one – the room and bed on which Achieng lay was where his wife was supposed to be.

It was at that point that Achieng, who had just given birth to a bouncing baby boy via C-section, lifted the lid on her aborted plan to sell her baby to Adhiambo.

All this while, Adhiambo was hanging around at the hospital, waiting for Achieng to be discharged and, thereafter, hand the newborn over to her.

Pumwani Hospital medical superintendent, Leonard Okoko, confirmed the incident to K24 Digital.

Police, who were called to the hospital, arrested Adhiambo, who remains locked up at Shauri Moyo Police Station as investigations into the thwarted baby trade deal continue.

Area DCIO, Kiamba Rukunga, says Adhiambo will be arraigned once investigations are concluded.