Cases of child trafficking and illegal adoption are rising in Nairobi’s Eastlands informal settlements, with brokers allegedly preying on desperate women struggling with infertility, miscarriages, and childless marriages on the brink of collapse.
Police investigations reveal a heartless syndicate treating newborns and toddlers as commodities sold openly for profit, bypassing all legal adoption procedures.
In a dramatic late-night rescue on Tuesday, April 7, two toddlers; a boy and a girl, both aged about one-and-a-half years were recovered in Kware, Embakasi South, after being stolen and trafficked like cheap goods. Each child was allegedly sold for Sh50,000.
Nairobi Chief Officer for Citizen Engagement and Customer Service, Geoffrey Mosiria, who led the rescue, recounted the chilling details. A woman who bought the baby boy fell gravely ill.
Consulting a traditional healer, she was warned that one of the biological parents had sought spiritual intervention and her situation could get worse and might end up dying if she failed to returned the child.
Panicking, the buyer handed one child back to the seller. Instead of reuniting the toddler with his parents, the seller reportedly began searching for a new buyer. Acting on a tip-off from vigilant community members, Mosiria intervened.
“I confronted them and told them the real parents were ready to take their child so she could be healed,” Mosiria said. The buyer confessed to paying Sh50,000 for one child.
The baby girl is said to have been found abandoned. Both suspects were arrested, and the two children; one found sleeping on a cold floor were rescued and placed in safe custody.
Their biological parents are still being traced.
Separately, two women appeared in court following an earlier raid in Dandora. Betty Akinyi Nyanya, 56, and Sarah Adhiambo Oloo, 42, were charged with human trafficking and conspiracy to commit a felony.
They were granted bond of Sh600,000 each by Chief Magistrate Beatrice Kimemia at Makadara Law Courts, with no cash bail alternative. The case is set for mention on August 24, 2026.
The Dandora operation began on March 15, 2026, after 21-year-old Flavian Ademi reported Nyanya for allegedly stealing her three-week-old baby boy.
Ademi had suffered a miscarriage and sought to buy a newborn to conceal her loss from her boyfriend and save her relationship. When the deal soured over partial payment (she had paid Sh15,000 of the agreed Sh30,000), she turned to police.
The raid on Nyanya’s home in Dandora Phase 5 uncovered two infants: a three-week-old boy and a two-week-old girl.
Nyanya claimed the babies were delivered by a man from an unnamed maternity clinic in Kawangware, but she provided no verifiable details. The doctor remains at large.
Ademi then led officers to Oloo’s house in Kariobangi South, where a four-month-old baby girl was rescued.
Oloo had allegedly disclosed to Ademi that she bought the infant from Nyanya in November last year after her own miscarriage and to save her marriage from crumbling since the husband allegedly wanted more children.
Investigations revealed that Oloo visited a clinic in November last year, requesting for neonatal vaccines. She told the nurse told the nurses that she gave birth at home and she needed a birth notification from Mundika clinic within Dandora.
She was however given the notification knowing very well that the information she had given out was false.
Ademi herself visited Uzima White Nursing Home on March 14, seeking a birth notification while claiming she had given birth en route, but she vanished when staff demanded to see the baby. She too had suffered a miscarriage and still wanted to keep her partner.
Court documents link Nyanya and Oloo to the recruitment, harboring, and illegal control of at least three newborns for unlawful adoption and financial gain. Nyanya reportedly priced baby boys at Sh30,000 and girls at Sh25,000.
DNA buccal swabs were taken from the three women and the rescued infants. Samples have been sent to the Government Chemist for analysis to establish biological parentage.
In total, authorities recovered three minors across the operations. These cases have sparked public outrage, highlighting a disturbing underground network involving rogue medical personnel and middlepersons who exploit women facing intense cultural and social pressure to have children treating innocent lives as merchandise.
Prosecutors, led by state counsel Susan Kibungi, urged the court to note the severity of the offences and the vulnerability of the infants.
“Given the gravity of this matter and its significance to the public interest, I humbly urge this honorable court to impose stringent bail and bond terms”
This latest bust comes amid a worrying national rise in cases of missing children, including newborns, in informal settlements where elderly women are sometimes implicated in sourcing or stealing infants for resale.
Investigations continue as authorities appeal for anyone with information on the missing parents or the fugitive doctor to come forward.
