Kisii woman charged for killing albino baby

Kisii woman charged for killing albino baby
By A CORRESPONDENT


A 23-year-old Kisii woman has been jailed for four years for killing her baby girl because she was an albino.Ms Sarah Kemunto committed the offence early last month at Bokimweri village in Nyamache district early last month.

A Kissi Court heard that villagers had retrieved the baby’s body from a local river and upon investigations, it was confirmed that the accused was the mother to the albino baby. A post-mortem result further revealed that the infant had been suffocated to death.

The law court further leant that Esther Moraa aged four months was killed because she was an albino and secondly because she was not sired by the accused current husband.
Ogembo Resident Magistrate Richard Koech heard that the baby met her death through a conspiracy between the accused and her husband who believed that albinism was a bad omen to the family and had to be done away with. The husband has since gone into hiding but local police said that they were tracing him.

The Albino Society of Kenya is up-in arms with the government and the larger Kenyan society for the inhumanity and insecurity that has gripped people with albinism. The association wants the government to provide security to persons with albino skin pigmentation and the Human Rights and Civil Society groups to provide awareness and advocacy for the rights of the albinos.

Recently a Kenyan man was arrested and prosecuted in Tanzania for attempting to sell off another albino Kenyan to suspect witchdoctors .It is believed that parts of an albino person’s body produce witchcraft instruments.

“It is unacceptable and highly inhuman for people with albinism to be exposed to fear, or kidnapping, killings and even segregation due to the negative beliefs society tends to have against them” Said Alex Munyere chairman of the Albinism Society of Kenya.