Woman suspects her newborn baby was stolen at hospital

Ms Irene Kirimi speaks at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on August 31, 2016. She said a city hospital declined to give them the body of their allegedly dead child for burial. PHOTO | ELIZABETH MERAB | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Ms Irene Kirimi, 22, suspects her baby was stolen.
  • Ms Kirimi was taken to Space Healthcare in Riruta on August 25 by her husband, Peter Mahugu, after her labour pains started.
  • According to the first time mother, her delivery was smooth and within minutes the baby had been born.
  • But controversy began when the hospital informed her husband, and her sister, who had accompanied them to hospital, that it was a stillbirth.

A woman’s hope of going home with her newborn baby was crushed after she was told the baby was born dead by medics at a health facility in Nairobi.

And now Irene Kirimi, 22, suspects her baby was stolen.

Ms Kirimi was taken to Space Healthcare in Riruta on August 25 by her husband, Peter Mahugu, after her labour pains started.

According to the first time mother, her delivery was smooth and within minutes the baby had been born.

But controversy began when the hospital informed her husband, and her sister, who had accompanied them to hospital, that it was a stillbirth.

“They told me that the child had died in the womb and the body was decomposing. But they did not allow me to see the body. They told me to continue resting in bed but called my husband and sister to see the body,” said Ms Kirimi.

The initials MCB (macerated stillbirth) are scripted in Kirimi’s booklet that documents the health of the mother and child during pregnancy.

This means that the foetus had died and their skin softened and disintegrated because of prolonged exposure to amniotic fluid.

Even so, Ms Kirimi claimed that the hospital did not disclose further information about her child’s body and on demanding the body to bury, the hospital allegedly said it had got rid of it.

However, in a fresh twist, the hospital’s clinical officer, only identified as Angelina, said they handed over the body to Ms Kirimi’s family.

Now, Ms Kirimi and her husband are claiming that their child is alive and the hospital is keeping their infant.

ANTENATAL CARE

Information indicated in Ms Kirimi’s antenatal booklet showed that she had been attending antenatal care at a different hospital.

On the other hand, the Dagoretti police chief Rashid Mohammed, who is handling the case, also has a second booklet detailing the birth of a baby boy at Space Healthcare where Kirimi had given birth.

The boy is in the custody of Kenyatta National Hospital and was allegedly born a week before Kirimi gave birth.

Mr Mohammed said the hospital reported that the baby had been abandoned by the mother after birth.