Two boys heard the two-week old baby girl, named Angel by nurses, crying near their house in a Nairobi suburb.

The dog's owner then found the baby covered by an old cloth in a plastic bag. She gave her some milk and cleaned her before she was taken to hospital.

Doctors think the baby was left for two days before being discovered. The case is receiving huge media coverage.

Local residents say the baby was probably abandoned in a nearby forest and the dog then carried her in the plastic bag from the forest over the main Ngong Road back to the house.

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The dog's owner told The Daily Nation newspaper that two of her children came to her saying they could hear a baby crying but couldn't find it.

The dog is thought to have rescued the baby from a nearby forest

"I followed them outside and looked around our compound and a nearby plot," said Mary Adhiambo.

"I saw my dog, which I have had for five years, lying protectively with her puppy besides the soiled baby lying in a torn black cloth. I held the baby in my arms and carried it into the house."

A neighbour then took Angel to a nearby police station and on to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Doctors found maggots in her umbilical cord, but a hospital spokeswoman said the baby was responding well to treatment considering she had been left outside in the cold.

Hospital staff say members of the public have begun donating baby clothes and nappies.

Unwanted babies are quite frequently abandoned in Kenya - because of failed relationships or extreme poverty.