Kenya-Based US Couple Distressed After Kenyan Authorities Took Away 3-Year-Old Boy in Their Custody

An American couple who had a child under their custody taken away from them last month by Kenyan authorities is demanding to know why this happened.

Plain clothed police officers are said to have taken away the three-year-old boy after storming the house of Matt and Daisy Mazzoncini, an American couple that lives in Kenya.

The couple says the police officers did not give a proper explanation as to why they were taking away the Kenyan child named John Kiano. That was the last time the two saw the boy, whom they ‘adopted’ when he was six months old.

“I had just finished putting Kiano to bed and he had just fallen asleep and I walked out of his room and saw Matt’s face and all these people and I just knew something was really wrong,” Daisy told CNN.

A police report shows Kiano was found as a newborn abandoned together with another baby believed to be his twin. The second baby died later.

Kiano was taken to Mogra Children’s Home in Kiambu after receiving treatment.

It is while working at the orphanage as a volunteer in 2016 that Daisy met baby Kiano and began paying for his medical bills.

CNN reports that Kiano was suffering from pneumonia and a chest deformity at the time but was in 2018 diagnosed with atypical febrile seizures.

In April 2017, a Nairobi court named Daisy and her husband Matt as Kiano’s legal guardians.

The two say the officers who took the child claimed the court guardianship order was fraudulent.

“I knew they were taking him. I just felt it. But there was nothing we could do. At this point, there were 13 people. And they had made a human wall,” Daisy said.

After the baby was taken away, Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in a tweet said its officers had “rescued” Kiano from American citizens; Mathew Mazzoncini and Daisy Mazzoncini.

They claimed the two were planning to travel with the baby back to the US.

“The child is well & in safe hands,” DCI said in the tweet, which was later deleted.

However, the Mazzoncinis have denied the claims made by DCI.

Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) is currently embroiled in a court case with Matt and Daisy over Kiano’s custody.

Speaking to CNN, CWSK CEO Irene Mureithi says Kiano is now in “safe custody … with other children.” 

Ms. Mureithi further explains that guardianship cannot be given to foreigners unless it is a special case.

“Guardianship is not meant for non-citizens. It is not meant for that unless it’s a case of emergency.”