A taxi driver has rescued a baby boy who was dumped under a lorry near a petrol station in Thika’s Makongeni estate hours after being born.
The infant was heard crying at around 5.30am by a night guard who informed the taxi driver.
They cleaned the infant, carefully cut the umbilical cord and dressed him warmly before calling the police who alongside them, took him to Thika level Five Hospital.
The Hospital’s Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr. Jackeline Wangechi Njoroge said the infant’s condition was critical when he was brought in but improved tremendously after being attended to.
Dr. Njoroge added that once convinced that the baby was out of danger and ready to leave the facility, they would hand him to Thika Children’s Department.
According to sources at the hospital, cases of abandoned babies have become common, with the Deputy Med. Sup saying they receive three of such cases each month.
She called on mothers to embrace family planning to avoid such incidences or take the babies to children homes instead of killing or dumping them.
Police are now appealing to anyone with information about the runaway mother to alert them.
A similar act of compassion from a man happened in the same county in 2018. The man adopted a one-day-old infant that had been abandoned at Kimbo area in Ruiru.
His act was applauded by Kenyans for demystifying common stereotypes of men as cold hearted by volunteering to embrace the infant as his own child.