Court allows lawyer to visit Baby Kiano to confirm he is alive and safe
High Court Judge Ngenye Macharia on Tuesday granted a request by the lawyer of Baby Kiano’s guardians to visit the child where he is being held so as to confirm he is alive and safe.
The judge further directed the lawyer not to disclose the location or the house where the child is being held.
“Applicant counsel to be accompanied by officers and Bernard Baraza from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to the location where the child is being held tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm for purposes of confirming that the child is alive,” ruled the court.
The Attorney General has also since filed his response to the case saying the police took Baby Kiano and placed him under the care of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, further rubbishing claims by the Mazzoncinis that the child is unwell.
“No medication is being administered to the child, who has been under special treatment,” the court heard.
The case was set for mentioning on Thursday.
Matt and Daisy Mazzoncini grabbed public attention last month when they demanded answers claiming the three-year-old boy in their custody was taken away by authorities without explanation.
Surveillance footage from April 5, obtained by CNN, shows two cars pull up to the Mazzoncinis’ apartment complex and a group of people piling out. Shortly after, two women, their faces obscured by headscarves, can be seen carrying the boy downstairs and out of the building.
That was the last time the American couple living in Kenya saw Kiano, whom they say they’ve been caring for since he was six months old.
Kiano, who is Kenyan, was found as a newborn abandoned along with another baby believed to be his twin, according to a police report. The twin later died.
After receiving medical treatment, Kiano was taken to Mogra Children’s Centre orphanage in Kiambu, Nairobi. Daisy met Kiano when she began volunteering at the orphanage in the summer of 2016, and she soon started helping to pay for his medical bills.
As an infant, Kiano suffered from pneumonia and a chest deformity, according to Matt, but in 2018 was diagnosed with atypical febrile seizures, according to medical documents seen by CNN.
Daisy and her husband Matt were named Kiano’s legal guardians by the Children’s Court of Nairobi in April 2017. However the order specified Kiano would not leave the jurisdiction of the court without the court’s permission.
But they say the plainclothes police that showed up at their home told them the guardianship order was fraudulent.
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