By ALLAN OLINGO

When John Mungai walked into the Standard Group Centre on Wednesday, he was clutching on his last hope – to request The Standard to highlight the story of his daughter’s disappearance.

The Standard carried the story on Friday and at 6am the next day, a man called the newsroom with news on the girl’s whereabouts. When this was relayed to Mungai, he was elated.

“Let me lock myself in a quiet room so that we can talk. Are you sure they are not playing games,” Mungai asked, sounding relieved.

Pollet Waithira Mungai, 17, a KCSE candidate had left home on May 3, and hadn’t been seen or heard from. Her father Mungai had reported her disappearance to Karuri Police Station on the May 6, and it was booked on the occurrence book number 23/6/5/2012.

In the early morning phone call, Alliwah, a gospel musician and actor, disclosed to The Standard that he had Pollet Wangui within his traveling theatre group in Kisii and that after reading The Standard that morning, he was shocked to learn she was the missing person.

Two-hour wait
Alliwah offered to drive her from Kisii to the Standard Group Centre and The Standard then arranged for the parents to come and pick their daughter.

When the parents walked in, in the company of Pollet’s aunties, one could see the anxiety in their faces as they waited for about two hours for Alliwah to arrive.

“Are you sure they are coming? What if she is not the one?” posed Mungai. Six hours later, Pollet was ushered into the boardroom and when her parents walked in, you could see the shock in her face. To the parents, it was a sigh of relief, as they fought back tears.

Apparently, through the drive from Kisii, Pollet did not have an idea she was in the papers, leave alone that she was coming to meet her parents.

“I did not want to tell the girl what was happening, so I lied to her that we were travelling to Nairobi to buy some performance costumes and to pick some scripts at the Standard Group,” Alliwah explained to the schoolgirl’s parents.

All this while, Pollet was dumbfounded; as she sat pensively with her eyes glued to the story highlighting her disappearance.

Cast position
“I had advertised for a female cast position through Facebook on the May 17. Three girls turned up for the auditions at Liberty House. Pollet was one of them,” Alliwah explained.

Alliwah says as a requirement, all actors within his group must provide details about their background, parents and upbringing.But when they asked Pollet about all these, all she disclosed was that she comes from Buruburu.

“We allowed her to train with the group but when she did not turn up for two days, we thought that she had quit. She then turned up the next Tuesday and when we threatened to drop her off our cast, she started crying and asking us to hear her story,” he says. Alliwah explained that Pollet had claimed that she was an orphan and that her mother had died of cancer.

“She told us that she was staying with an abusive uncle and it was at this stage that I had to call the female members of the cast to talk to her,” he added.

Said Alliwah: “It was then that Pollet claimed she had run away from her uncle after he tried to rape her. She had taken off with Sh500 and his mobile phone and was now putting up with a friend.”

It was an emotional meeting, as the parents could not hold back tears as her story unfolded.
When asked where she had been putting up, Pollet revealed she had been staying at the University of Nairobi with a male student.

“I am happy that my daughter was in the right hands. Even though she went missing, God guided her to a Christian who not only took good care of her, but was kind enough to call and even drive her to Nairobi from Kisii,” said the father.

“We thank The Standard for making this reunion possibly,” the parents said, happy to get their teenage daughter back in the family.

Good grade
Looking apologetic, Pollet said she wanted to be back in school, promising to score a good grade that would see her earn a place at the university.

“As a father, I would advice you to go back to school and put your best to recover from the lost time. Ask yourself why this male student, who already has a place at the University, wants to waste your chance to get there too. Is it really worth it?” posed one of her aunties.

As they left, father and daughter were holding hands, each fighting the tears of a joyful family reunion.