Police probe woman who faked child birth and theft
Police are investigating a woman who gave a false information at Pumwani Maternity Hospital over her stolen new born baby yet she was found to be nine weeks pregnant.
Christine Mashibe, 20, reported at Shauri Moyo police station on Thursday evening that a nurse going by the name Grace had midwifed her delivery and then stole her baby.
In an interview with Nation, Ms Mashibe said that she had lied over the issue so as to find a way out of her marriage citing domestic violence.
“My husband has a girlfriend and has been beating me up so I decided if I told him I lost our baby he would break up with me,” said Ms Mashibe
Her husband is a welder and also a student at the Technical University of Kenya.
NEVER BEEN TO PUMWANI
Ms Mashibe confirmed that she has never been to Pumwani and that she had only heard stories of babies getting stolen at the hospital therefore she thought the husband would not follow-up the matter.
The Pumwani Superintend Dr Lazarus Omondi said the woman arrived at 7am on Thursday and caused a commotion demanding her baby to be returned saying the hospital had stolen it.
When they interrogated her, she said that a nurse called Grace was the one who took her child but she could not identify her.
“We checked all our records (and found that) she has neither attended antenatal care in our facility nor was she in the delivery books and that she had not given birth at all,”said Dr Omondi.
When the police and the hospital demanded for explanation, she changed her story claiming that she had dleivered at home in Makongeni but the child had died.
NINE WEEKS PREGNANT
Dr Omondi said that her husband and brother-in-law had demanded to be shown the body so as to perform the traditional burial rituals. That is when she took them to Pumwani.
The doctor said that she was carrying an antenatal clinic book that was issued at the Ngara Health centre that indicated by January she was 20 weeks pregnant, although it seemed to have been altered by the patient.
“The card from Ngara has been altered as the nurse had put some dashes on the tests which shows that they have been put a plus and also indicate that she was 20 weeks pregnant by January. I cannot tell where the pregnancy went,” said Dr Omondi.
“The hospital did both the urinalysis and Ultrasound tests and we found her nine weeks pregnant and will deliver in early December this year.”
Dr Omondi added that the woman had bruises on her face, which they suspected would partly explain the bizarre incident.
