PHOTO CAPTION: Briella, Camilla and Renesmee - female triplets born via a surrogacy agency based in Kenya. An Irish couple whose triplets were born via surrogacy in Kenya is crying foul after the deal went sour.
Speaking to British media, Edward O'Reilly and his partner narrated how they explored surrogacy options in 2021 and settled on one agency based in Nairobi.
But a year later, they were forced to kiss their children goodbye after they were asked for thousands of extra euros when they arrived in the country to take them back home.
Their three daughters: Briella, Camilla and Renesmee were due to be born in October but were born prematurely on September 1st.
From the 1st to the 5th, officials from the agency told them the babies were doing okay and just needed some oxygen and some special baby food.
They arrived in Kenya a few days later, on September 5th.
It was late at night (around 11 pm), and they had to wait until the next morning (Tuesday) before they could finally go see the babies.
As arranged, they were picked up by officials of the agency and set on the journey to go see the newborns.
But along the way, things took a sharp turn.
The surrogacy agents demanded an extra payment of €16,000 (Sh1,890,000) in order to proceed with the journey.
They also asked for €1,226 (Sh144,700) each for a birth certificate.
Utterly shocked by the unexpected demands, the couple sniffed a rat and refused to comply with what was now clearly looking like a scam.
They were kicked out of the vehicle and dropped on the side of a street in Nairobi CBD.
By this point, they had not even been informed of the name and location of the hospital where their babies were born.
Fortunately, after some digging online, they found the facility, saw the babies and to their dismay, they were sickly and had medical tubes everywhere.
Doctors even warned that one of them could not make it.
This was contrary to what the agency earlier communicated to them.
To make matters worse, they found out that several bills were unpaid, including the hospital and the specialist physicians who took care of the triplets.
Unable to come up with the required funds, the couple was left with no option but to make the hard decision of leaving the kids in Kenya.
In an interview with an Irish radio station , Edward O'Reilly says they flew back home with the hope of fundraising enough cash.
All their pleas with the Irish embassy in Kenya proved futile; they said they could not intervene in the matter.
The couple has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds.