I Stole The Baby Because I Couldn’t Have One – Maid told Court

A Zambian maid in the country’s capital Lusaka who left her boss’s family traumatized, after she disappeared with their six-month- old baby has told the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court that she stole the baby because she does not have her own.

Reachel Banda, 21 has since pleaded guilty to the charge of child stealing.

Banda, who is now unemployed following her actions of stealing the baby from her employers, explained that she had no intentions of harming the baby but wanted to keep it as her own.

The accused further said she did not have authority of the parents to the baby to take it away.

“I got the child because I do not have my own. I had no intention of harming the child but I wanted to be staying with him. I also didn’t get consent from the parents,” Banda told magistrate Faides Hamaundu when she appeared before her for plea.

After she pleaded guilty to stealing the baby, magistrate Hamaundu entered a plea of guilty and adjourned the case to January 7, for facts and possible sentencing.

The allegation in this case is that Banda on December 14 last year, with intent to deprive Brenda Hakanema, who had lawful care or charge of her baby Luyando Mwanza, a child under the age of 16, fraudulently took possession of the child.

After going missing with the child within a week, Police in Kitwe apprehended Banda who had fled with the baby from Lusaka.

She disappeared with the baby that was left under her custody by the parents.
Banda was apprehended by alert traders at Chisokone Market as she moved from one restaurant to another asking for food for her and the baby.

Copperbelt Commissioner of Police Charity Katanga informed the nation that Banda was picked up in Chisokone Market where she was moving from one restaurant to another asking for food.

Katanga said it was during this time that she caught the attention of some members of the public who quickly started comparing her with pictures of her and the baby shared on social media.