A woman who was arrested while fleeing to Uganda after stealing her neighbour’s baby has been detained in police custody for 14 days to allow police complete investigations.
Judith Awino was arraigned before the Kibera law court and police asked for time to compete investigations saying she was not arrested with the baby.
Senior Principal Magistrat Monica Maroro allowed the application and directed that Awino be detained in custody pending investigations.
Investigating officer Linda Barasa told court that they are looking for the child who was taken from the mother by Awino.
Barasa said they are not sure if the child is still alive or dead because when the suspect was arrested at the Busia border, she did not have the child.
” We only managed to find some clothes that belonged to the child, we don’t know whether the child is alive or dead, we need time to ascertain that,” she told the court.
According to court documents, Awino told her friend to take her to Gikomba so that she could pick her niece who was coming from school.
The mother claims that when they got there, Awino bought for her Soda and other drinks and after drinking it she started feeling dizzy.
” In Gikomba, she bought the minor’s mother some food items and a soda from a certain hawker and she started feeling dizzy, she later ordered that they go back home since it was getting late,” reads court papers.
On their way back home to Highrise estate where they stayed, Awino took the child from the mother in the pretext that she was helping her since she was dizzy and tired.
” After she handed over the child to the suspect, they all alighted together at the Highrise stage but the suspect walked away with the child from the mother and vanished within the crowd,” she told the court.
The mother looked for Awino and her child to no avail and that’s when she reported the matter to police who immediately commenced investigations and arrested her at the Busia boarder.
She did not object to the request for her detainment when asked for her response by the court.
