Three children were yesterday rescued from a house in Kiambu town where they having been living unattended.

The siblings aged four, three years and eight months were left under the care of their father after their mother allegedly eloped with another man. Kiambu district children's officer Jennifer Wangare said they were initially staying with their maternal grandmother.

The grandmother however handed them over to their father three months ago because she could not fend for them. The neighbours, who alerted the children's department about the plight of the three, the father leaves early in the morning leaving the children with only a bottle of water.

The neighbours could occasionally give food to the children. In the house, there was only one tattered mattress on which the children said, their father sleeps. The children said they slept on polythene papers. There were neither beddings nor any sign of food in that house.

The eldest of the children who takes care of her siblings said that the dad comes home late at night carrying potato chips which he eats alone.

The father, Thomas Njenga, was arrested and would be arraigned in court for child neglect while the children were taken to children's home.

The children officer lamented that cases of child neglect and abuse have on the rise in the area and appealed for collective responsibility by the society in looking after children and blowing the whistle whenever children's rights are abused.