A multi-agency team has begun investigstions into a child trafficking syndicate exposed by ‘The Baby Stealers’ aired on BBC Africa networks. – By Wilson Wambua.
Labour and Social Services CS Simon Chelugui said the investigation will stop at nothing to establish all the networks behind the syndicate.
‘Following this expose, a team of officers and experts from the relevant government agencies has been constituted to exhaustively investigate and take the necessary action.”
“As the Government of Kenya, we do not condone child trafficking and we will do everything possible to get to the bottom of this issue,’ he said during a Press briefing on Tuesday.
The documentary by BBC Africa Eye uncovered an underground trade route that is used to sell children stolen from vulnerable mothers living on the street, as well as the existence of illegal clinics dotted around Nairobi where babies are sold for as little as £300 ($400).
The investigation also revealed corruption at Mama Lucy Kibaki, where one Fred Leparan, a clinical social worker at the hospital, facilitated the sale of an abandoned two-week-old baby boy to undercover reporters, later accepting 300,000 shillings (£2,000) in cash.
The hospital’s CEO, alongside co-accused persons have since been arraigned in court.
There are no reliable statistics on child trafficking in the East African state, but a non-governmental organisation, Missing Child Kenya, said it had been involved in nearly 600 cases in the past three years.
