This archive report was first published on 19 June 2020.
A disturbing incident unfolded in Kilifi County on June 18, 2020, when a two-week-old baby was rescued from a 30-foot pit latrine at Grace Academy School in Kilifi South.
According to reports, the baby was found at 11 pm, wrapped in a white baby blanket, floating in human waste beneath the latrine floor.
Security guard Katana Charo, who alerted others to the scene, described the harrowing moment: 'I only heard a baby crying beneath the latrine floor, and when I looked into the pit, I saw an infant wrapped in a white baby blanket floating on human waste.'
Thanks to the quick thinking of a Good Samaritan, identified as Kahindi Buyo, the baby was safely removed from the pit latrine.
The infant has since been taken to an orphanage in Vipingo, and investigations have been launched to determine who was responsible for abandoning the baby in the pit latrine.
This incident comes on the heels of a similar tragedy in Nairobi, where Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko's clean-up team recovered the bodies of two infants at Korogocho area in 2020.
Since the launch of the Nairobi River Restoration Project in 2019, 16 infants and 5 adults have been retrieved from the river.
Governor Sonko has called on the police to take concrete action to prevent such incidents, stating, 'I think the police have a big role to play. I know they have been working tirelessly to curb this vice but we note that it's beginning to resurface again. They will need to be more vigilant.'
