Three health workers arrested after BBC’s investigation on theft of babies in Kenya

The police in Kenya have arrested three senior medical officers for their alleged role in child trafficking.

The arrest follows an investigation of BBC Africa Eye on how children were stolen from illegal clinics at a Nairobi public hospital.

After the report, Hillary Mutyambai, inspector-general of police, ordered an investigation into hospitals, as well as children’s homes in Nairobi.

The BBC Africa Eye had uncovered a trade in children stolen from vulnerable mothers living on the street, as well as the existence of illegal clinics dotted around the capital, Nairobi, where babies are sold for as little as $400.

The investigation also revealed corruption at Mama Lucy Kibaki, a public hospital in Nairobi.

Fred Leparan, a clinical social worker at the hospital, was said to have facilitated the sale of an abandoned two-week-old baby boy to undercover reporters, later accepting 300,000 shillings ($2,700;£2,000) in cash.

There are no reliable statistics on child trafficking in the East African state, but a non-governmental organisation, Missing Child Kenya, said it had been involved in nearly 600 cases in the past three years.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Simon Chelugui,  Kenya’s labour and social protection minister, said the culprits would face the “full force of the law”.

Chelugui also acknowledged that improvements to some of Kenya’s child protection services were needed.

While presenting an annual report to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday, Noordin Haji, director of public prosecutions, explained that more than 170 cases of human trafficking have been listed in courts out of which a total of 88 cases have been concluded, giving the office of DPP a conviction rate of 97.33 per cent.