A newborn baby who was found dumped in a deserted home in Mlambo village in Usonga location of Siaya County is recuperating at Rwambwa sub-county hospital after well-wishers rescued it.

And a manhunt launched soon after for the baby’s mother led to the arrest of a 17-year-old secondary school student suspected to have abandoned the child, Usonga location acting chief, Paul Onyango Kanoti said.

According to Kanoti, the infant was rescued by a peasant farmer who heard the newborn’s cries when she was tilling her land nearby.

“The woman was on her farm when she heard the cries coming from a deserted homestead,” said chief Kanoti adding that she alerted her husband and together they went into the house that had one of its walls collapsed and found the newborn wrapped in tattered clothes.

He said that the couple alerted his office and they moved in to take the baby to the hospital for observation.

The chief said that a search was launched immediately, leading to the arrest of the form two student near the expansive Yala swamp.

“We suspect that she wanted to commit suicide,” Kanoti said adding that the young mother was taken to Rwambwa police post for further interrogation.

The incident comes in the wake of reports of more than 5,000 teenage pregnancies reported in Siaya County between January and May this year.

Siaya county commissioner, Michael ole Tialal who revealed the figures during a recent function, divulged that between January and May, 2020, over 300 young girls of between 10 to 14 years were impregnated and attended antenatal clinics in public health facilities.

Tialal called for concerted efforts to contain the vice saying it was a threat to the future of young girls in the county.

KNA by Philip Onyango