Parents’ long and painful search for autistic son

Roseline Misati and her husband Edward Momanyi with a picture of their
son Henry Ogeto who went missing. [PHOTO:Benjamin Sakwa/STANDARD]

Roseline Misati has never known peace since the disappearance of her 19-year-old son, Henry Ogeto, at a bus terminus in Kisii town on May 1 this year.

Ms Misati, 47, a teacher at Maraba Primary, was travelling to Kakamega accompanied by her son from their rural home in Nyamira County when the standard eight autistic pupil went missing.

“I excused myself to get change from a nearby shop in order to pay the boda boda rider, only to discover my son missing when I returned to the spot where I had left him,” says the bewildered mother of four.

After a frantic search for the son, touts at the bus terminus told her that he was seen boarding a Nyamira-bound matatu. They even gave her the vehicle’s registration number. She boarded the next vehicle towards Nyamira in a bid to trace the son.

On reaching Nyamira, she identified the said matatu with ease but her son was nowhere to be seen.

“I hurriedly took a vehicle and pursued them to Nyamira. On arrival the conductor confirmed that my son was indeed among the passengers but had been forced to alight since he had no fare at all,” she narrates.

Misati was later informed at the same bus stop that the boy has been picked up by an Eldoret conductor whose vehicle was heading to Kisii town.

“It was a cat and mouse game, that fateful Monday. I rushed back to Kisii town where the Eldoret vehicles were but I never found my son. I was told again that he had gone with a Nairobi tout in his vehicle. I went to the Nairobi terminal hoping to find him,’’ she recalls.

Not aware of his condition, the conductor kept asking for bus fare but Ogeto could not answer him.

Ogeto is a standard eight pupil at Maraba Primary School in Kakamega County.

According to Misati, he was born with autism and by the time he was 12 years old, Ogeto could only manage to mumble a few words.

His parents had made an effort to take him for therapy with a psychiatrist at the Kakamega County General Hospital and Ogeto was undergoing treatment. He was on daily drugs.

“He has been unable to take prescribed drugs for almost one month, we do not know whether he is alive or dead by now,” his mother says, fighting back tears.

“I am worried as a mother because of his condition. At times he gets hyper for hours and we have to calm him with drugs. It is difficult for us a family at the moment. If he was in a position to speak maybe the story would have been different,” she continues.

No response

Reports of Ogeto’s disappearance were made at Kisii Police Station 24 hours after the incident.

“I reported my son missing at the Kisii patrol base on the same day; the officers there told me to keep searching and ask street families within the town,” she recalls.

Nonetheless, the couple has not received any communication from the police in regard to the loss of their son. “We have put announcements on vernacular radio stations since then, but there has been no response so far,” adds Misati.

Ogeto’s father Edward Momanyi, prays that he will find his son and appeals to anyone with information about his whereabouts to report at any police station in the country.

“It is been six weeks of sleepless nights. I am traumatised and I hope I will find my son. We always treat him as a three year old because of his ailment,’’ he says.

The parents can be reached on 0734529373.