A Roma woman who murdered her newly born baby by dumping her into a pit toilet says she killed the child because she could not afford to raise her as she is unemployed.

’Majubere Lekhooa, 22, of Makhaleng is expected to spend the next two years behind bars if she fails to pay the M4 000 fine demanded by the Maseru Children’s Court.

She was sentenced on Tuesday this week after she pleaded guilty to charges of concealment of childbirth.

She was arrested by the Roma police after fellow villagers found the body of her newly-born baby in the pit latrine.

Before November 19 when the body was discovered, Lekhooa was overtly pregnant but she was a few days later seen as no longer pregnant, the evidence before the court shows.

The evidence further shows that children who were playing near the toilet saw a suspicious-looking plastic bundle in the toilet hole and they told their parents about it.  

Members of the village policing committee later retrieved from the toilet hole the body of a newly-born baby following investigations that ensued.

The dead child was wrapped in plastics, the evidence before the court further shows.

The incident was later reported to the area chief leading to Lekhooa’s eventual apprehension.