Pauline Gatwiri, 28, said she and her friend Nina Gacheri, met the woman at Majengo Mapya in Likoni on Sunday evening, while on their way to a hospital.
Her baby boy needed an eye check-up.
“She stopped us and told us there was a mzungu (White man) who had opened a clinic in town and that he sponsored children's access to healthcare. She told us jb opportunities were also available,” Gatwiri said.
She spoke at Haki Africa's office in Mombasa where she sought help.
The distressed woman said the woman suspected to be a child trafficker promised to take her to the clinic the following day.
“She promised to call the following day but when we asked her to give us her contacts she refused. She told us we would get her number when she called."
They did not ask for her name.
The woman called Gatwiri on Monday morning but she did not answer. She then called Gacheri and asked them to be in town by 9 am.
Gacheri, who is jobless, was lured by the prospects of landing a job.
The two women hurriedly crossed the Likoni channel to meet the stranger outside Budget Supermarket along Digo Road.
“She asked me to give her my baby to carry so we could move faster. I gave her the baby."
While across the road, the two women looked back and saw the woman still standing with Gatwiri’s baby. But they did not find her when they finished making copies of the documents.
They called the number she had used to call them (0741 948983). The woman told them she was behind the supermarket and that they needed to hurry.
The next time they called, the phone was off.
The single mother sells miraa for a living and was abandoned by her husband on March 15.
Haki Africa gender programme officer Salma Ahmed said this is a new trend in Mombasa.
“We don’t know if it is linked to politics or witchcraft or if it is simply a case of child and organ trafficking,” she said this was the third case in three months.
Rights group programme officer Francis Auma assisted Gatwiri in reporting the matter at Central police station.
He said a child trafficking cartel could be operating in the area.
Detectives have already started trailing the suspects. They said the woman's phone number was traced to Shimanzi area in Mombasa at mid-morning on Monday.
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