A 25-year-old woman, Faith Nyokabi, was on Tuesday arrested in Thika town, Kenya for allegedly asking her husband to pay before breastfeeding their baby.
Nyokabi reportedly abandoned her four-month-old baby at her matrimonial home in Kiganjo Estate over a week ago and refused to return without receiving Ksh.100,000 ($995) in cash from her husband, Charles Kiiri, reports Citizen TV Kenya.
According to the 36-year-old Kirii, a casual labourer, he was informed on August 1, 2018, that his wife had taken off and left their infant in the house.
He reportedly rushed home and found the baby under the care of neighbours. Kiiri pleaded with Nyokabi to return home to breastfeed her baby but she told him that her mother had taken her to a local hospital where she had been injected with a drug that supposedly dried out her milk supply.
Nyokabi told her husband, she wouldn’t come back home unless he gave her the money.
The frustrated husband reported the matter to the Thika Children’s Offices and was referred to Murang’a Children’s Offices.
Kiiri said the main issue between the two was occasioned by his mother in-law whom he accused of making frequent financial demands.
According to Thika Children’s Officer Lina Mwangi, the woman will be charged with child neglect and denying a child protection and care contrary to the Children’s Act.
Mwangi advised the father to look for a temporary caregiver to look after the infant under his watch as the court handles the matter.
