Kenyan Baby Trafficker Receives 25-Year Prison Sentence Following BBC Africa Eye Investigation

In Kenya, a hospital worker named Fred Leparan has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempting to sell a baby. Leparan, who worked at Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital in Nairobi, was caught on camera accepting $2,500 in exchange for a baby boy who was under the hospital's care. He was arrested in 2020 and found guilty of child trafficking, child neglect, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Leparan's accomplice, Selina Adundo, also employed at the hospital, received a six-year prison sentence or a $2,000 fine. The undercover operation was conducted by a reporter from BBC's Africa Eye, who posed as a potential buyer after receiving information about Leparan's involvement in illegal child trafficking. Leparan did not ask many probing questions about the buyer's situation and readily agreed to sell the baby boy, despite learning that the buyer and her husband were struggling to conceive. On the day the baby boy and two other children were supposed to be transferred to a state-run children's home, Leparan falsified the transfer paperwork to make it appear that only two children were being sent. However, the BBC team ensured that all three children were delivered directly to the children's home while capturing footage of Leparan altering the paperwork and informing the fake buyers that the child was theirs to take away. The Kenyan court has ruled that Leparan will serve 25 years in prison and an additional 10 years on probation. Adundo, on the other hand, was convicted of three counts of child neglect but acquitted of child trafficking. The court has emphasized that both individuals should never be allowed to handle matters concerning children. Despite strong evidence against Leparan, the case took over two years to reach a conclusion, partly due to the defendant's well-funded legal defense. Eventually, Leparan admitted that he was the person seen in the BBC's undercover footage. Child trafficking remains a significant issue in Kenya, although reliable statistics are scarce. According to the country's Labour and Social Protection Minister Florence Bore, over 6,000 children were reported missing between July 2022 and May 2023. As a response, the government plans to phase out privately owned orphanages and children's homes within the next eight years, aiming to eradicate child trafficking.