A Kenyan hospital employee who sold a baby on a black market after being discovered by the BBC was given a 25-year prison term.
A baby boy in the care of the Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital in Nairobi was sold for $2,500 by Fred Leparan, a staff member there.
After a BBC Africa Eye investigation led to his arrest in 2020, he was convicted last month of child trafficking, child maltreatment, and conspiracy to commit crime.
After hearing from a source that Leparan, a senior clinical social worker at the government-run hospital, was involved in illicit child trafficking, an Africa Eye reporter originally approached Leparan while masquerading as a potential buyer.
Before deciding to sell the baby boy, Leparan questioned the undercover reporter, who said she and her husband had difficulty conceiving, merely a few passing questions about their circumstances.
Leparan was caught on camera fabricating the transfer documentation on the day the baby boy and two other kids were due to be moved from the hospital to a state-run children’s home so that the home would only expect two kids, not three.
The BBC team made sure that all three kids went straight to their homes, but they caught Leparan changing the paperwork and telling them that the kid was theirs to keep.
Leparan will serve 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation, a Kenyan court ruled on Wednesday.
Source: 1Familyradio