Househelp charged with strangling four-month-old son

A 23-year-old househelp was on Friday charged in a Milimani court with infanticide after allegedly strangling her four-month-old son.

Mercy Ruto was accused of committing the offence on October 21, in Olenguruone, Nakuru.

The suspect, who left their home in Olenguruone to work in Nairobi, allegedly confessed that she strangled the baby and dumped the corpse at the Meteorological Department staff quarters in Dagoretti.

She had been employed by a staff of the Met Department.

However, after four days, the employer discovered Ruto did not have an ID. When asked, Ruto said had applied for one and had a waiting card at home.

When her employer took her back to Olenguruone to collect the ID, Ruto's mother asked her where the baby was.

The suspect told the mother the baby's father had taken him. Her employer left her behind and returned to Nairobi and reported to the police.

Officers went to Nakuru to interrogate Ruto and she "confessed that she had killed the child".

The body was retrieved from the dumpsite in Dagoretti and a postmortem was scheduled for yesterday.

When Ruto appeared before senior principal magistrate Martha Mutuku, she denied the charge.

Her lawyer George Wajackoya requested the court to be lenient while determining bail and bond terms for Ruto.

He said the suspect is the mother of a six-year-old child.

Mutuku remanded Ruto awaiting a probation report and establishing the whereabouts of the other child.

The pre-bail report will be presented on December 4, when the magistrate will set the bail terms.