Stella Mutave Ndumi , the mother of missing three-month-old twins and Victoria Ndumi outside the Thika Level 5 hospital where they were protesting the disappearance of the children.pic\Stanley njenga

Operations at a hospital were on Saturday paralysed when sex workers stormed in to protest the disappearance of three-month twins belonging to one of them.

The babies' mother Stella Ndumi, 29, said she left the twins at the Thika Level Five Hospital two months ago after she failed to clear a Sh16,500 bill.

"We agreed with the hospital management that I should come back for the children as soon as I got the money," said Ndumi, a self-confessed sexual worker who operates in Thika town.

Ndumi said her mother Victoria Ndumi borrowed money from her friends to clear the bill but they were denied access to the hospital by guards when they went to pick-up the twins.

Ndumi, accompanied by her mother and scores of her colleagues, held a demonstration within the hospital compound demanding that the children be released to them.

The protestors screams attracted a large crowd of wananchi. The guards roughed up journalists who were covering the demonstration to prevent them from taking pictures.

The hospital superintendent, Jonah Mwangi, could not be reached for comment as his phone went unanswered. Thika West District Children's officer Harrison Mwiti said the twins were taken to a home after the hospital informed him that Ndumi was not of sound mind and was capable of killing them.

Ndumi however refuted the claims saying it was a ploy to cover up the identity of the father of the children who she said is an AP officer. She alleges her relationship with the AP started when she accepted to sleep with him after she was arrested in a crackdown three years ago.

Ndumi said she has been in a "come-we-stay" relationship with the officer, whom she said was transferred when she asked te children's department to compel him to take responsibilty for the twins.