NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 15 – Four babies aged between one and six months have been abandoned at Kericho district hospital after their mothers left them immediately after giving birth.
Hospital superintendent Dr Betty Langat said three of the babies are in the nursery while six-month-old Ann Agosti is staying at the children’s ward after her mother abandoned her at the hospital three months ago.
Langat said the other three children at the nursery were in good health while Agosti’s condition has improved.
Agosti was admitted to the hospital three months ago while seriously malnourished
“All the four children are in good health as nurses at the hospital have been taking care of them by feeding them. Those in the nursery will continue to stay there for a while,” she said.
Speaking at the hospital on Saturday when students of Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) Kericho branch visited the health facility to spend their valentine day, Langat said the hospital management was working with the children’s department to have the minors taken to a home.
The students who were led by the branch manger Emmy Sigei cleaned the hospital’s maternity and children wards and gave flowers to patients admitted at the hospital.
“We have secured orders through the office of the children department in Kericho to have the four children transferred to a children’s home where they can be taken care of until their mothers go for them,” the medic said.
She appealed to residents of Kericho to volunteer with information to the hospital management that could help them trace the whereabouts of the children’s mothers and relatives.
Kericho Children’s Officer John Odinya said the four children will be taken to the New Life Home Trust in Kisumu which takes care of abandoned children who are at their tender ages.
Odinya noted Kericho lacks a children home and facilities for taking care of the abandoned minors and called on well-wishers and the local community to consider constructing such a facility in the area.
He said cases of abandoned children in the town and its environs were on the increase and called for concerted efforts of members of public and local leaders to help address the problem.
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