A woman who stole a two-week old baby from the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in 2018 has been sentenced to 5 years in prison.
While delivering the judgement, City Court Chief Magistrate Roselyn Oganyo said the prosecution, led by Willy Momanyi, had proved its case against Ednah Kemunto Mabuka.
Kemunto stole baby Prince Ouko from KNH on February 18, 2018, after she was asked by the infant’s father, Job Nyatiti Ouko, to check on his twins as he wheeled his wife to a room on the first floor of the hospital.
Mr Ouko told the press he rushed his wife and mother of the twins to KNH on the fateful day at around 2am but had to wait for hours as he was informed the room she was to be admitted in was “yet to be cleaned.”
At around 11:30 am, the room was finally available for use and he was asked to wheel in the wife to room 108.
It was then that he decided to ask two women who were in the queue with him to look after the twins but, about two minutes later, one of the women who was carrying his other child – Brighton – rushed toward him saying the other woman had taken off with Prince.
Mr. Ouko, in disbelief, reported the incident to the KNH management and, upon scrutiny of the CCTV footage, a woman with unkempt hair, red top and black skirt later identified as Kemunto was seen carrying the baby and heading for the exit.
Two days later, after Mr. Ouko’s heart wrenching story aired on Citizen TV, a Good Samaritan from Kawangware contacted him raising alarm about a neighbor – Kemunto – who had suffered a miscarriage earlier on only to come back home with a baby on the day Prince was stolen.
The father then, together with his brother and area chief, stormed Kemunto’s home and found Prince Ouko crying and still in the same clothes he was wearing when he was taken.
The woman was arraigned before a Nairobi court where she initially pleaded guilty on February 27, 2018, only to later change her plea to ‘not guilty’ and was released on a cash bail of Ksh.600, 000.
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