.Katongo

By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
POLICE have detained a woman who allegedly gave hospital authorities false names when delivering her baby and then gave her child away to another woman whose names she had used at the hospital.
Police are still investigating the matter and it is not established whether the child was sold but preliminary investigations reveal that the child was given away because the woman did not want to keep the child after her partner refused to be part of the child’s life.
The woman, Lizzy Moomba, 36, of Garden House township is alleged to have given away her child to Nevia Mumba of Lusaka.
Police spokesperson Esther Katongo said it was alleged that Moomba on Monday went to deliver her child at Levy Mwanawasa Hospital in Lusaka where she gave her names as Nevia Mumba.
Ms Katongo said on Wednesday, some people who knew that Moomba had a full term pregnancy, noticed that she was leaving the pit latrine with blood stained clothes but without a baby.
The eye witnesses then concluded that Moomba had dumped the child in the pit latrine and alerted other people, who together went to report the case to Kanyama police station.
The mob wanted Police to act on the assumption that Moomba had killed her child.
However, after Police conducted investigations, preliminary details indicated that Moomba had actually delivered a baby from Levy Mwanawasa Hospital where she had registered herself as Nevia Mumba.
“When queried on the whereabouts of the baby, Moomba claimed that the baby was in Lusaka’s Meanwood residential area with her sister Nevia Mumba,” Ms Katongo said.
She said after giving birth, Moomba handed the baby over to Nevia Mumba.
Moomba told the Police that she did not want to keep the baby because the man who got her pregnant denied responsibility.
Both women have been detained in police custody while the baby was retrieved from Mumba and is being kept at one of the health facilities.
Ms Katongo said investigations have continued.