For the past six days, Maureen Gesare has been tirelessly searching for her nine-month-old daughter, who was stolen by an unidentified woman last Tuesday.
Ms Gesare, a resident of Kwa Rhonda in Nakuru West Constituency, says she left her only child in the care of her older sister on Tuesday last week, but by evening the baby was missing.
According to reports, a baby snatcher lured four children who were in the baby's company with soda and chips before sneaking away with her.
According to Ms Gesare, on the fateful day before she left for work, she peeled potatoes and bananas to make work easier for her sister, who also has a three-month-old baby.
But when she returned from work in the evening, she was shocked to learn that her daughter had disappeared after being picked up by an unknown woman.
"It is painful that l have lost my child. The children were deceived with soda and chips worth a hundred shillings. I don't know the woman, but l am pleading with her to return my child," the devastated mother told the Nation .
Maureen Gesare hopes to find her nine-month-old daughter who was stolen in Nakuru.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation
“I secured employment as a casual labourer in a company within Nakuru City a month ago, and since then I have been leaving my daughter with my sister, whom I stay with. That morning before I left my baby was crying but since l had no option, I just left her. Little did I know that was the last time I would see my daughter,” added the 19-year-old mother.
According to the mother, that evening, her neighbour's children asked to take Kerubo, the baby, as they usually do, to a charity home not far from their home. The children often go there to get free food.
However, on their way home, the four children, one of whom was carrying Kerubo, encountered a woman asking for directions. The woman reportedly told them she was new to the area.
On enquiry, Ms Gesare was told that the woman had asked them to show her the Weavers market and had bought them crisps and fizzy drinks before disappearing with the baby.
The woman, who was wearing a blue dress and white shoes, was caught on CCTV at a nearby supermarket where she bought tumblers to serve the soda to the children, she said.
Ms Gesare said she had tried to look for her daughter in the neighbourhood, but no one seemed to know the woman.
She filed a missing person's report at Rhonda Police Station and detectives from the Nakuru West Directorate of Criminal Investigations took up the matter.
“I always leave her with my sister... I later learned it was not the first time that the woman was seen around the charity home. A day before she stole my baby, she was spotted there and even asked if they were selling porridge,” she says through tears.
"I just pray that she will be found. Sometimes I find myself woke awake through the night just thinking about where she is since I do not know whether she is okay."
Ms Gesare's older sister, Faith Kemunto, said that the four children picked up Kerubo and her three-month-old at 5pm and left for the charity home.
According to Kemunto, the four, while in the woman's company, passed near their gate dropping off her three-month-old baby who was asleep at the time and left with Kerubo, promising to return.
“When she met the four, she asked them the gender of the two children, and after she was told they were all girls, she waited for them outside the charity home. Had they not dropped off my baby, she could have also gone missing,” she said.
