House helps, who inevitably become secondary parents to children, at times closer to them more than the actual parents, have in recent days used this as an extortion scheme.
Cases of house maids abducting children whose care they are left under and demanding exorbitant amounts as ransom for their release.
Police on Thursday for instance rescued a seven-year-old who was abducted by a house help from their Loresho home in Nairobi.
The boy was rescued from a house in Kawangware where he was being held by a woman. The boy’s house girl and her daughter were arrested after it emerged they were behind the kidnap ordeal.
The daughter was found with the boy in her one roomed house in Kawangware where she was making calls to the parents of the boy demanding a ransom of Sh3 million.
Police said the house girl had conspired with her daughter to commit the offence.
A similar case was also heard in Zimmerman where another house help took off with a couple’s 6-year-old daughter.
The maid, Sharon Chepkoech used Mary Ndiga’s daughter to blackmail her, demanding a Sh10,000 ransom in exchange for the child, without which she would take off with the child to Malawi.
She used text messages to scare the family.
Luckily, police were able to nab the house help, before she was able to execute her escape plan.
This only begs the question on how safe our children are in the hands of total strangers to whom we vest absolute faith, trust and access.