A Kenyan woman has been charged in court for allegedly trying to hire hit-men so they could kidnap, extort and kill her ex husband’s child, The Star reports.

Reports say the suspect Persi Wairimu approached someone asking if he knew people that were capable to do the job, however that particular person sold her out as she reported about the woman’s intentions to her estranged husband Benson Irungu.

Alarmed, Irungu went to police and registered a complaint against Wairimu.

In an affidavit, DCI officer Raphael Rhioba on Friday told  Makadara senior principal magistrate Angelo Kithinji that Irungu reported that Wairimu was looking for hitmen for his daughter.

Rhioba said that investigations commenced after Irungu reported the matter.

Officers posed as hitmen told Wairimu they could do the job.

“The respondent proposed that since she was not in a position to pay a down payment, the first instalment of ransom should go to the officers,” Rhioba said.

He said that Wairimu then took the officers to the complainant’s daughter’s place of work located in Thika and to their residence.

She then provided them with photographs of both the complainant and that of the daughter.

“Your honour the officers stage-managed the kidnapping in a manner which the respondent believed that the kidnap had been executed but the daughter was kept in a safe room under the care of her father with her phone switched off, “he said.

The officers then laid a trap on March 12 and Wairimu was arrested after receiving a ransom.

Rhioba said that during all the meetings with the respondent, all the conversation was tapped.

While asking that Wairimu be held further, Rhioba said that he needed more time to obtain CCTV footage, forward tapped recordings to a forensic analyst and all exhibits which were recovered.

He said if the respondent is released she will be a threat to the security of the victim and witnesses.

Kithinji ordered that Wairimu be detained for four days pending investigations.

The matter will be mentioned on March 19.