Police in Machinga are keeping in custody a 19-year-old Victoria Mkhwambala of Lipongo Village, Traditional Authority Nkula, for allegedly dumping a baby in a pit latrine soon after giving birth all alone on February 25 this week.
The officer in charge of Machinga Police Station, Deputy Commissioner Jane Mandala, said the baby was retrieved from Machinga Health Center’s pit latrine and was referred to Machinga District Hospital for treatment but died on February 26 while on treatment.
She said that Machinga Health Center, ln Charge, Akuzike Nkaile, reported the matter to police after a cleaner at the facility heard a baby cry deep in the pit latrine.
Mandala said Police and villagers dug the latrine to retrieve a live baby as the mother was nowhere to be traced.
The suspect mother was later identified and admitted that she dumped the baby into the pit latrine, saying she was indeed expectant, gave birth to a baby and dumped it in a latrine because she could not raise another child as it was revealed that by the time she was giving birth to the newborn, she already had another child.
She is in Police custody, and she will appear in court soon to answer charges levelled against her, according to the Deputy Commissioner of Police.
