Patients at the outpatient wing waiting to see doctors at the St Mary's Mission Hospital, Mumias in this March 14, 2017, photo. An 18-year-old girl delivered a baby with no eyes and ears at the hospital over the weekend. [Photo: The Star Kenya]
Residents of Sirigoi village in Navakholo Constituency are reeling in shock after a class seven pupil delivered a deformed baby over the weekend.
The baby had no ears and eyes and had a twisted mouth. The head was also not fully developed. The baby was delivered at St Mary’s Hospital, Mumias.
The 18-year-old girl is said to have been impregnated by her married cousin who took advantage of the girl’s vulnerability after her parents’ separated due to marital conflicts. The young girl was forced to drop out of school due to the pregnancy. The man is still at large.
A section of the villagers attributed the deformities to witchcraft while others attributed the deformities to incest. However, health workers refuted the two theories. They said that the baby suffered from a condition known as anencephaly, a birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
Maurine Awuondo, a midwife at the hospital, said that the condition develops when the upper part of the neural tube does not close all the way. This results in a baby being born without the front part of the brain (cerebrum). The remaining parts of the brain are often not covered by bone or skin.
On Sunday morning a woman in Mombasa gave birth to a child with no eyes. The baby has since died.