A six-month-old baby is fighting for her life after she was beaten with police armed with a baton as she slept in her mum’s arms.
Samantha Pendo is in hospital in a coma after officers raided her parents home in Kisumu, Kenya.
The baby was caught up in a violent raid when officers shoved the door open, fired tear gas into the house and beat the family with batons.
The baby had fallen into a coma by the time she was admitted to hospital hours later after police refused desperate pleas to take her to A&E.
Mum Lenzer Achieng said she feared the tot was dead after her baby was struck when police broke into a bedroom where she was lying with her daughter.
She said:
“One of the guys beat me and the other one came with that stick on them and hit the baby.
“Then I left the baby off of my hand because she did not cry, I did not feel any movement with the baby. I said screaming, she was dead.”
The horrific incident comes as police stressed only thugs and looters were killed following post-election clashes in Kisumu in the wake of last week’s presidential elections.
It is believed officers were searching for political protesters when they burst into the family home.
Dad Joseph Abanja, whose arms and hands were left swollen and scraped from the beating, said he and his family were innocent.
He added: “We’re not thieves. Its just me and my family in the house. They beat me bad like a thief and I am no thief.”
Doctors at the Kenyan city’s Aga Khan Hospital said they are desperately trying to save Samantha’s life.
Hospital director Dr Sam Oula said:
“At the time of admission the child was critically ill and had already lapsed into coma.
“So we did what we are supposed to do and we admitted the baby into ICU where she remains quite sick, quite, still critical.
“The medical team is doing its best in terms of turning this baby around, but she remains quite critical.”
Dr Oula said delays in administering emergency medical treatment also exacerbated Samantha’s injuries.
