Two social workers who were charged with child trafficking at Mama Lucy Hospital after a BBC expose two years ago have a case to answer.
In a ruling, senior principal magistrate Esther Kimilu said after considering submissions of defence and prosecution, the court was satisfied that the two have a case to answer and were put on their defence.
In the case, Fred Leparan and Selina Adundo have been charged in connection to child trafficking at Mama Lucy Hospital.
It is alleged that between March 1, 2020, and November 16, 2020, at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Embakasi Central within Nairobi, jointly with others not before the court they conspired to commit a felony namely trafficking person.
They also denied three counts of trafficking in persons.
It's alleged that between April 30 and May 1 2020 at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital they received and transferred three children aged three weeks, two months and another eight days.
They were also charged with two other counts of neglect of a child contrary to the law.
During the hearing, one of the witnesses narrated to the court how Leparan took Sh300,000 from a journalist in an illegal sale of abandoned babies at the hospital.
Peter Murimi, a director and producer of the film "The baby stealers" aired on BBC, told the court that Sh300,000 was put on the table at the request of Leparan.
He said Lepran took the money by pulling the three bundles of Sh100,000 each on the side of the table next to him.
The witness told the court that Leparan didn't want the interested party to get into the hospital to collect the child as he acknowledged that it will raise suspicion.
He said that when the baby was being delivered to the interested party to a car waiting outside the hospital, Leparan did not want a lot of chatting and expressed concern that his co-workers would become suspicious.
"This underlines our point that Fred knew that what he was doing was highly illegal," Murimi said.
The defence hearing will be on March 7, when they are expected to give their side of the story and defend themselves against the allegations.
