POLICE in Eldoret have revealed a network of suspected child traffickers where private hospital staff conspire with the traffickers by forging birth certificates used by the traffickers to obtain birth certificates which are eventually used to transport the stolen children.
Detectives managed to capture three middle-aged women among them two employees of a private hospital. The three were brought to court in relation to offenses related to child trafficking. Brenda Cheptoo, Rael Nyaboke and Clanca Njeri were brought before the Senior Resident Magistrate of Eldoret Barnabas Kiptoo and accused of trafficking four children aged between 7 months and 5 years.
While in front of the court, they were not allowed to answer the charges after the prosecution asked for more time to complete the investigation on the child trafficking scandal associated with the women. They were arrested in Eldoret town four days ago by DCI police officers and detained in the cell of Naiberi police station in Ainabkoi sub-county, Uasin Gishu County.
According to the indictment, the first and second defendants are employees of Fountain Hospital while the third defendant is a participant in the child trafficking scandal. When they were brought to court, the prosecution submitted a request to detain them for 21 days while waiting for the investigation to be completed. Through his affidavit in court, investigating officer Inspector Joyce Thunge from the DCI Eldoret East department told the court that the three may interfere with the investigation if they are released before the completion of the investigation.
In addition, the investigator told the court that the suspects were likely due to the seriousness of the charges against them. Ms Thunge told the court that the main suspect Ms Cheptoo is in charge of hospital records while Nyaboke works at the center as a nutritionist. She revealed that detectives intend to conduct DNA tests on the four children to identify their biological parents.
The court was also told that the prosecution had not yet recorded statements from key witnesses in the child trafficking case. The court ordered the police to detain the suspects for 12 days at Naiberi police station until the investigation is completed. The case will be mentioned on April 15.
