Plea-taking in child trafficking case now deferred, suspect ill
A Nairobi court yesterday deferred the plea-taking in a child trafficking case against a former Chief Executive Officer at Mama Lucy Hospital until tomorrow.
The move comes after Musa Mohammed Ramadhan who was expected to plead to the charges, failed to attend court since he is said to be admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital.
“My client fell sick while in custody under the care of police. He was hospitalised at Kenyatta Hospital on Friday.
We pray that our client takes a plea on Wednesday,” the lawyer told the court.
The court granted Musa’s application and directed that he appears in court tomorrow for plea-taking.
At the time of the offence, Musa was a superintendent at the hospital and left the facility barely a month ago.
However, a clinical social worker Fred Makalla who was exposed by BBC for being behind the child theft syndicate after negotiating with an undercover journalist to sell a child who had been abandoned at the Mama Lucy Hospital was charged with child trafficking.
Makallah was charged alongside Selina Awour who was in charge of the baby unit section at the same hospital.
In the charge sheet, Musa, Makalla and Awuor are accused that jointly with others not before the court, conspired to traffic persons at Mama Lucy Hospital between March 1 and November 16.
Makallah was charged with a second count of receiving and transferring a male child aged six years for the purpose of abusing the vulnerability of the child between April 30 and May 13 at the hospital.
