Social worker handed 35-year jail term for child trafficking, duty neglect at Mama Lucy Hospital

Fred Leparan, a social worker, was caught in a well-planned plot to sell a child abandoned at Mama Lucy Hospital while negotiating with an undercover journalist.

Leparan was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday, but he will only serve 25 years in prison and 10 years on probation.

Selina Adundo, his accomplice, received a 2-year non-custodial sentence or a fine of Ksh.100,000.

"The two, knowing that they had a duty of care for these three children, exposed the children to abuse, and therefore the two are guilty of the offense as charged," the court noted. 

The court determined that the two violated the ethics of social workers.

The magistrate further took note of a BBC documentary, saying that it was evident from the video that there were talks of children between Fred, the whistleblower and Rose who had posed as the buyer of the children.

".....if Rose was to get one child why would he not let the other two go as per the discharge?" Court posed.

The court said that Fred just decided to hand over the children to Rose against the acts and ethics of social workers. 

The prosecution told the court that between March 1, 2020, and November 16, 2020, at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Embakasi Central within Nairobi, jointly with others not before the court they conspired to commit a felony of trafficking.

During the hearing, one of the witnesses narrated to the court how Fred Leparan took Ksh.300,000  from a journalist in an illegal sale of abandoned babies at the hospital.

Leparan had asked the woman named as Rose the gender she preferred, to which she replied that gender did not matter adding that she wanted a healthy child. 

Leparan was asked by the BBC reporter, who had pretended to be a buyer, whether the baby was healthy, and he replied that he was thereby confirming his intent to steal and sell the child.