While many parents with Standard Eight eight students look forward to the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), Winnie Chepkoech from Bureti, Kericho County dreads this time of year. It brings sad memories.
She remembers how her first born daughter Sharon Cherono sat for her KCPE in 2010 then disappeared from her grandmother’s home.
“She had just sat her national exam at Cheplanget Primary School and then disappeared before her results were out, never to be seen again,” says the visibly distraught mother of four.
Chepkoech said the past five years since Sharon’s disappearance has been a difficult period as she has been left wondering what befell her child.
“I have had sleepless nights since she disappeared in 2010. I always imagine the anguish she may be undergoing wherever she is. I wish I was with her so that I can stand by her side whenever she has problems,” she says.
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Chepkoech still remembers vividly the events that transpired and led to Sharon’s disappearance from her grandmother’s home where she had been staying during her school days.
“She was waiting for her KCPE results and being a long holiday she had many friends who I think misled her into leaving home for an outing and she never returned,” a heartbroken Chepkoech says.
She recalls leaving her place of work on that fateful day only to receive a distress call from her mother informing her that Sharon had disappeared.
At first, she thought her daughter may have gone to visit a friend and darkness locked her out and that she would return the following day.
This was, however, not to be and the family made frantic phone calls to relatives trying to trace the missing girl. It later emerged that Sharon had gone with a neighbour’s daughter to an undisclosed location.
“The two girls had both sat for KCPE together and seemed to have disappeared together. Sharon’s friend, however, came back home after three months and told us they parted ways in Nakuru town on March 2011,” Chepkoech says.
Spurred by hope, Chepkoech immediately left for Nakuru and stayed there for a week moving around day and night, from one joint to the next hoping to see her child but her efforts were fruitless.
In December of that same year, reports reached her that Sharon had been spotted at Salgaa town by a neighbour and she traveled to the town hoping to find her and bring her home.
Since then, her daughter has been spotted in Nakuru, Kericho and Eldoret and all her attempts to trace her have been futile.
“I cannot imagine living without my first born daughter and while I worry about her welfare, I still have hope that she will one day return home. I will not tire looking for her. I just want my child back,” Chepkoech says.
