A 32-year-old woman who allegedly stole a three-month old baby at Kiamunyeki Farm in Lanet was on Monday charged before a Nakuru court with child theft.
Appearing before Chief Magistrate Burudi Kalo, Gladys Wamaitha pleaded guilty that on July 7 in Kiamunyi she stole a three-month-old baby.
The court heard that the mother of four ditched her family to be with another man and wanted to prove to him that they sired the child together.
Wamaitha who was at large for a month was arrested at her boyfriend's house in Kiti area after the matter was reported to the CID Nakuru offices.
On interrogation, the accused admitted that she had been feeding the child with porridge and milk since she was unable to breastfeed.
According to the police, the accused who is an immediate neighbour to the child's parents had offered to help in soothing the child since the mother was moving out in preparation for her business.
The accused later took off with the child and switched off her phone and efforts to trace her phone were futile.
In her mitigation, she told the court that it was the devil that made her commit the offence since she was compassionate towards children and wanted the court to release her on reasonable bond terms.
“It was not my intention to commit such an offence. The devil made me steal the child so as to impress my boyfriend and I admit it was not right,” she said.
Chief Magistrate Burudi Kalo in his ruling directed that the accused person be remanded until Friday awaiting a pre-sentence report to be drafted.
“The accused should be remanded until Friday to allow for a pre-sentence report to be presented in court,” he said.
The case is set to be mentioned again on August 12.