Last Friday night, police forcibly entered a Westlands flat and took away a three-year-old Kenyan child whose legal guardians are an American man and woman
Soon afterwards the DCI issued a self-congratulatory tweet of how they had "worked around the clock to rescue" the child. In reality, it appears that the 'rescue' was illegal, cruel and shoddy.
The police abduction was illegal because the Children's Court appointed Matt and Daisy Mazzoncini as the child's legal guardians in 2017. The police, who refused to identify themselves, had no court order to take the child and told the couple, "This is Kenya, not America," when the Mazzoncinis complained.
It was cruel because the child has multiple medical problems including severe epilepsy. The police initially refused to take along the child's anti-seizure medicine.
It was shoddy because the police did not bother to check false claims that the Mazzoncinis were faking the child's medical reports.
A writ of habeas corpus is being issued to produce the child in court. The child should be returned to its legal guardians. If the state wants the child back, it should revoke the guardianship legally in the Children's Court.
Quote of the day: "If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety per cent of the time."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The American President died on April 12, 1945
