8-month-old baby assaulted by step-father in Thika recovering well

The 8-month old child who was allegedly gravely battered by his step-father at Kiganjo village in Thika, Kiambu County is recovering well at Thika Level Five Hospital.

The hospital superintendent Jesse Ngugi Tuesday told journalists that the male child might be released in two weeks upon complete recovery.

Ngugi said the hospital received the baby with complaints of diarrhea and vomiting but upon further examination, the baby was found to have bruises all over his body, an indication that he had been assaulted.

The hospital, he said, resuscitated the child with intravenous fluid and put him on antibiotics before stabilizing the fractures.

As the hospital continues to attend to the innocent child, sleuths in Thika continue to hold Daniel Njoroge and Ann Nyangi, the prime suspects in the crime.

The two, a step-father to the kid and her biological mother will be charged with assault and child neglect respectively.

According to the child’s grandmother Nancy Mwikali who has since visited her grandson at the hospital, the two suspects had only lived together as husband and wife for three months.

Mwikali who spoke at the hospital further revealed that she has been living with Nyangi at their home and that she only left for Kiganjo three months ago.

After leaving, Nyangi lied to her mother that she had rented a house at the sprawling village only to establish that she got married to a 21-year-old man who has never been introduced to the family.

Before the 20-year-old mother left their Makuyu home in Murang’a County, the baby, Mwikali said, was full of health.

On Friday last week, Mwikali said that Nyangi told her the baby was suffering from diarrhea and vomiting when she advised her to take her to a public hospital.

When Nyangi failed to raise the Sh 600 required for hospital admission, she waited for her new husband until evening.

It is during that evening when Njoroge was allegedly feeding the baby when the mother discovered that the child had injury marks.

The mother who has since denounced the marriage between her daughter and the alleged assaulter urged the government to conduct a thorough probe on the matter and ensure that justice for the baby is served without failure.

The case which has since elicited fury among netizens is being probed by police to ascertain the motive of the perpetrator (s).

Thika-based counseling psychologists Dr Susan Gitau averred that the man might have been perpetrating the crime after realizing that the child is not his.

“The man might have been undergoing some mental issues after knowing he is not the father to the baby or he might be under influence of drugs. They both need a mental check-up to determine whether they might be having psychological disorders,” Gitau said.

She noted early marriages and rising teenage pregnancies cases for squabbles pitting young couples whereby children are always the victims.

“The young mother was defending her husband of any wrong-doing for fear of breaking her marriage. On the other hand the husband might have been assaulting the child to settle scores with the wife,” she said.

The child will be placed under her grandmother’s care once he recuperates.