Posted on Aug 19, 2016320 Views
Ms Gladys Wamaitha in a Nakuru court on August 8, 2016. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH
A woman who stole a three month-old baby has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Nakuru court.
Ms Gladys Wamaitha, who appeared before chief magistrate Josephat Burudi, was handed the sentence after she pleaded guilty to stealing her neighbor’s baby on July 5 in Kiamunyeki village, in Nakuru County.
She confessed to the theft saying she wanted to please her boyfriend and make him marry her.
According to the court documents, Ms Wamaitha disappeared with the child minutes after offering to take care of her on behalf of its mother, Ms Grace Wanjiru, who was doing home chores.
The prosecution told the court that Ms Wamaitha had insisted on staying with the child even after the mother requested to have her daughter back.
The child’s mother, who runs a chips café, reported the theft to Lanet police post after she realized that the accused had gone missing with the infant.
The two had been neighbours for only one month.
The court heard that initial efforts by the child’s mother to trace the accused were futile because she had switched off her phone.
Ms Wamaitha was tracked by detectives from the Directctorate of Criminal Investigations and was arrested at her boyfriend’s house in Kiti area, within Nakuru County.
Interrogations by the police revealed that the accused had duped her lover Mr Bonface Ndiku that the child was theirs.
The court was told that Ms Wamaitha had convinced her boyfriend that she had given birth to the child, forcing him to assume responsibility and accommodate her.
The prosecution told the court that Mr Ndiku was not aware that he had been living with another couple’s child.
In the judgment, the court ruled that the accused was not fit for probation.
“The accused will have to serve four year jail term to act as an example to others with intentions of committing a similar crime,” ruled chief magistrate Josephat Burudi.
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