The body of a decomposing newborn baby was on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, retrieved from a pit latrine in Ruria village in Muthambi Sub-County in Tharaka Nithi County.
A 24-year-old lady identified as June Karimi dumped the infant before fleeing prompting the search for the infant.
June’s grandmother Millicent Nkinga said that her granddaughter had tried in vain to keep the pregnancy a secret.
On Saturday, August 27, 2022, the granny realized that her granddaughter was no longer expectant moments before she fled to an unknown destination.
This prompted a search to determine the infant's whereabouts, with the four-day search finally leading to the 15-20 feet pit latrine where the body was discovered.
“On Saturday I realized that June was no longer pregnant and this meant that she had already delivered or gotten rid of the baby. We immediately began a search in the homestead since June had already escaped and this led us to the pit latrine where the body was discovered," the granny said.
Authorities in Tharaka Nithi retrieved body
A joint rescue operation by Kenya Police and Tharaka Nithi Fire and Rescue Department led by Alex Mugambi successfully retrieved the body with investigations already underway to determine the whereabouts of June.
Mugambi called on the community to be vigilant by following up on young pregnancy cases to avert such incidents in the future, confirming that over 10 such cases had been witnessed so far.
“We received reports that a child was discovered in a pit latrine and we cooperated with police officers to retrieve the body which was already decomposing. The body has so far been moved to the mortuary as the police go on with their investigations," he said.
The incident comes barely a week after a one-week baby was found abandoned in a classroom in the same Sub-County at Kairuni Primary School by a night guard.
