Drama ensued at Kîandaî village in Gîchûgû Constituency of Kirinyaga County, as irate residents launched a search for a newborn baby that disappeared mysteriously.
It is said that the baby’s mother, a 22-year-old lady, had sneaked out of Kianyaga Sub County Hospital yesterday, where she had delivered a baby girl on 3rd July of this year.
She then allegedly boarded a motorcycle from Kianyaga heading to Kîandaî village in Baragwi ward where she resides.
Upon arrival at the village, the lady identified as Jenifer Wanjiru, reportedly went to a friend’s house where she was served a cup of porridge.
Upon close examination by area residents, the lady first claimed that she had drowned the newborn in a nearby river.
“Jenifer said she had first killed the baby and later dumped the body into River Mukindu,” she said.
The residents, therefore, embarked on a rigorous exercise to search for the body with the aim of retrieving it from the said river but their efforts did not bear any fruits.
The furious residents confronted the lady further and this time, she confessed to having thrown the toddler into a pit latrine, but nothing was found after a search was conducted.
“We wondered why she was playing such kind of dangerous games with us,” a resident said
All this while, the residents were working in conjunction with the local administration and police officers from the area police post.
“A health official had contacted a local administrator enquiring about a lady who had sneaked from the maternity ward with an infant,” Mama Wachira said
She added that Jennifer had not been discharged from the hospital given her health condition after delivering.
“When we visited the health facility earlier, a health official had told us that we would not leave with her since she was not expressing enough milk for the baby,” she said
While confirming the incident, Kirinyaga East Sub County Police Commander Antony Mbogo said that investigations have been launched to shed more light on the matter.
“We are working to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of that baby. We’ll get back to the location to find out if she really drowned or dumped the baby in a pit latrine as she had previously alleged. And if there is some fishy business going on, we’ll still get to the bottom of it and expose it,” the police boss said.
