A man and his wife have been detained for 21 days by detectives for suspicion that they may have killed their one-year-old child by hitting him with a chapati roll during a domestic fight.
Ben Wekesa and Faith Ingafu were on Tuesday detained by Kibera Principal Magistrate Renee Kitagwa after police constable Agrees Too filed an affidavit seeking their detention.
The court heard that Fredrick Lokpapa, a medical practitioner of a health centre from Uthiru, reported to the police that both the respondent took their child to a medical centre and alluded that the child fell off his bed.
“THAT a case of sudden death was reported at Kabete police station vide OB 02/01/04/2023 by one Fredrick Lokpapa, a medical practitioner at Muthua health Centre Uthiru, that he received a patient aged one-year-old who was brought to the facility by both the respondent who reported that their child fell off from their bed at home while playing hitting cemented floor hence fainting,” the court heard.
The detective told the court that the woman, mother to the deceased had revealed to them that she had fought with the husband on March 30 at around 2230 hours and she was hit with a Chapati rolling stick severally while holding the baby. She said the baby might have been hit with the rolling stick.
The couple later took a shower and proceeded to sleep with the child. By then the child was fine, only for him to fall sick the following day, upon arriving at the hospital, he was pronounced dead.
The detectives requested the court to detain the respondent for 21 days for the postmortem to be conducted and for police to record statements from the key witnesses and do mental tests.
The couple agreed with the court for their detention.
The court granted the order and directed that the matter be mentioned after the lapse of 21 days.
