Kenyans rush to adopt Angel

DOZENS of Kenyans have offered to adopt a baby girl abandoned in a forest and later saved by a stray dog.

“The publicity on the way the baby was rescued has sparked a lot of public interest in helping her,” said Hannah Gakuo of Kenyatta National Hospital, where the newborn, dubbed Angel by health care workers, is being treated for exposure and an infection in her umbilical cord.

“People have been calling the hospital, asking about the possibility of adopting her,” Ms Gakuo said.

Unwanted infants are often abandoned in Kenya, with poverty and failed relationships frequently to blame. Kenya’s weak law enforcement and poor social security system mean most people who forsake their babies are never caught.

The stray dog that saved the child was also being cared for yesterday, a day after its last surviving puppy died for unknown reasons, said Jean Gilchrist of the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. Officials named the dog “Mkombozi,” or “Saviour,” and gave the dog a bath and de-worming.

Mary Adhiambo, a resident in the compound where the dog lives, said Mkombozi apparently found the baby Friday in a plastic bag. The dog reportedly dragged the baby across a busy road and through barbed wire to the shed in the poor Nairobi neighbourhood where puppies from two stray dogs were sheltering.