A 47 year old man from Nairobi, Kenya, Rashid Adan, has been arrested by the police for allegedly forcing his 10 year old daughter to sleep on the doorsteps for three years because she brought 'bad luck' to the family, reports Nairobi News.
Police from the Kariobangi Police Station, a suburb of Nairobi, said Adan and his mother who had been forcing the young girl to sleep outside in the cold, were reported by a neighbour and he will be charged to court to answer to child neglect charges.
The Nairobi News team had gone on an investigative visit to the family home and had found the child seated on the doorstep with a plate of Ugali and Sukuma Wiki on her hand, wearing her school uniform and sat on an old doormat. She claimed that she was given the food by a neighbor.
The soft spoken girl, a class five pupil at Marura Primary School, also had books next to her, an indication that she also did her studies right outside the house, located on the second floor of the building.
An officer, OCPD Benard Nyakwaka, said the police plan to take the child to the a children's home after investigations are concluded.
“We have information that the man has been claiming that the girl is not his biological daughter and that she brought bad luck to the family,” Nyakwaka said.
A National Youth Council Kariobangi North representative, David Wanyoike said he reported the matter to the police severally but no action was taken by the police.
“We feed the child whenever we can, but whenever her grandmother realizes that she has been given food, she shouts and hurls insults."
"We cannot even give her blankets because the old woman literally snatches them and throws them back,” Wanyoike told Nairobi News.
Wanyoike added that the girl had once attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself from the fifth floor of the flat but was rescued by neigbours.
