A Kenyan woman has successfully given birth to five babies at once through normal delivery, a rare occurrence globally.
Twenty-eight-year-old Mercy Kanini welcomed quintuplets, four girls and one boy, at Thika Level Five Hospital in central Kenya’s Kiambu County.
It is a moment of history. Africa currently holds the Guinness World Record for nonuplets, the nine Malian siblings born at once in Morocco in 2021 through fertility treatment and caesarean section.
However, what makes the latest multiple births by the young Kenyan mother extraordinary is not just the number of children but how they arrived. All five babies were safely delivered on 13 September 2026 without a caesarean section.
Miracle birth
Notably, the fifth baby came as a complete surprise because scans had only detected four.
Kanini said she delivered the first baby soon after arriving at the hospital. The rest followed gradually and successfully after nurses confirmed she needed no CS.
Local media quoted her as speaking from her hospital bed, saying she was ‘’not afraid’’ of natural childbirth and that her ‘’babies were attended to well.”
Her husband, Evans Nyamhanga, described the birth as a ‘’miracle’’ from God.
Kiambu County Governor Kimani Wamatangi described the birth as “a rare achievement and one of only five such cases recorded in Kenya’s history”. He praised the hospital staff for their “skill, care, and determination”.
As Kenya celebrates, Kanini’s family now faces the practical reality of raising five newborns.
Quintuplets are usually born prematurely, resulting in low birth weights and often requiring intensive medical care. The reportedly low-income family, which now has seven children, has appealed for financial help from the government and the public.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest multiple birth rate at about 20 per 1,000 births, and accounts for 34% of global twinning, according to World Population Review. Most of Africa’s multiple births are from natural pregnancies mainly linked to genetics, diet and environment, unlike some regions with high fertility-treatment rates.
