Lilongwe child thief gets 5-year jail sentence
Tiyanjane Khombe—a 32-year-old woman who feigned being pregnant, but ended up stealing a four-month-old baby from its mother at Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe—has been sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour (IHL).
Senior resident magistrate Shyreen Yona slapped Khombe with the sentence at the Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
Earlier during her trial, Khombe pleaded guilty to the charge of child stealing, contrary to Section 167 of the Penal Code.
Khombe comes from Nkokamasa Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kaphuka in Dedza District. She lived her make-believe pregnancy lie at Nyemba Village at Nathenje, on the outskirts of Lilongwe,
Court records indicate that some two weeks ago, she left Nathenje for Lilongwe, telling some close relatives that her time to deliver a baby was due.
However, on August 27, at Bwaila Hospital, Khombe acted like the ‘Good Samaritan’ by convincing—Jeniffer Duncan, 22, from Mchesi Township—to let her keep her (Duncan’s) baby, Trevor, by the gate area until the she returned from seeing her hospitalised neighbour in the maternity section.
But Duncan returned to the shock of finding neither Khombe nor her baby at the gate area. The traumatised mother and her husband, MacFarlen, later reported the incident to police.
Six days later, Khombe was cornered in Nathenje, where her return raised suspicion over her supposed newly-born baby who looked several months older. n
