•The Star has established that DCI boss Kinoti personally put top officer Baraza Walimoli in charge of the 'rescue' operation.
•The child was taken from guardians' Westlands home on April 5.
Image: COURTESY
Top DCI officers on Thursday told to the Star that the Kenyan child taken away from his American guardians last month is safe and well taken care of.
The officers, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, reaffirmed earlier confirmation that the April 5 operation had the 'blessings' of the top echelon of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The legal guardians, Matthew and Daisy Mazzoncini, say the child was snatched without explanation.
The officers told the Star that the three-year-old boy has been put in "a safe place, where he is happy". They did not elaborate.
They did not say whether he is in a children's home and whether he is on medication. The child's guardians said his condition was delicate.
Last month, the Star accessed a WhatsApp conversation apparently between a top government official and DCI boss Goerge Kinoti in which the latter said he was aware of the matter.
"I am fully seized of the matter... but in the event there is anything contravening any law and or for the best interest of the child, we stand guided," the message purported to be from Kinoti read.
The confirmation comes after weeks of denial and the apparent refusal by Kinoti to pick calls or respond to messages to shed light on the saga.
The Star has also established that Kinoti personally put top officer Baraza Walimoli in charge of the 'rescue' operation.
The couple, Matthew and Daisy Mazzoncini has filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the DCI to produce the child alive or dead in courts. The application is yet to be determined.
The child's story dates back to 2016 when Daisy Mazzonicini jetted into the country from the United Kingdom to visit a family friend Gathoni Kirima, who is also a bishop, operating a prayer centre in Kiambu.
She would later, together with Gathoni, find the child dumped alongside his twin, approximately weeks-old in a plastic bag, she told the Star during an interview last month.
Daisy later pursued the mechanism that led to the Nairobi Children's' Court appointing her as the legal guardian of the child and later as joint guardians with her husband Matt Mazzoncini in April 2017.
But Mazzoncinis have known no peace since the legal breakthrough, they say. They alleged that the Children Welfare Society of Kenya has been hostile towards them, especially in their pursuit for the authority to travel abroad to seek specialised medical care for the child.
They alleged that the boy has epilepsy and chest and neurological complications.
They told the Star they had offered to have one official from the children's society accompany them to the US, at their own cost, to act as the child's chaperone, to no avail.
It is not clear whether the child is under medication as prescribed wherever he has been put by the DCI agents.
Month-long efforts to reach Irene Mureithi, the chief executive of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, have been unsuccessful as she does not pick calls or answermessages.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)