Cop defends decision to support dad who smuggled a child from KNH

The AP officer who volunteered to foot the hospital bill for the father who tried to smuggle his child from Kenyatta National hospital, has defended his decision to help.

AP officer Tamooh Sanaet, who was at the forefront during the Dusit terror attack said even though what the 22 year old father Boniface Murage Wangechi did was wrong, he did it to show a genuine touch of love.

He said he was touched by the genuineness of Murage and his concern for family love.

The AP officer said he was out to help the father, who was charged with smuggling his own baby out of Kenyatta National Hospital broke.

“It is not that I’m supporting what he did because it was wrong, but looking at it from humanitarian angle, you will clearly see that life had pushed him to the wall and that is why he did what he did. I decided to sacrifice my few months’ pay in aid of the baby,” Sanaet said.

He added that "I am a police officer but everyone has a different personality and this detention of a minor at hospital and arraignment of her father over her hospital bill touched me.”

Sanaet said that Bonface Murage’s only offense was being poor.

Murage was charged with attempting to steal the child from the national referral facility and pleaded guilty. He was given three months suspended sentence.

“I am happy with the ruling of the court and the support that I have received from Governor Mike Sonko. I have been doing inconsistent casual jobs to eke out a living and am happy that Sonko has promised me a job,” Murage told journalists outside Milimani courts.

He was accused of defrauding the hospital of Sh56,937 by attempting to smuggle the minor detained over the bill which he could not pay.

Inspector Sanaet, who is in-charge of the Kitisuru AP camp was among Kenyans who came out in aid of Wangechi and gave him Sh57,000 after he left court cells.

Murage said his child developed a fever and was taken ill at KNH.

But after recovering, he had no money to pay the bill and the infant and the mother were held at the hospital as lodgers.

He decided to put the infant in a bag he used to bring his wife food at the hospital, to remove her from the facility without knowledge of the mother.