Family in search of pupil who escaped school

By FRANCIS KOECH

Uasin Gishu, Kenya: A family in Eldoret is anxious after their Class Six daughter went missing.

Juliet Chepchumba, 13, a pupil at Golden Seed Academy in Mutwot in Uasin Gishu, left school on March 21. She later appeared at her grandmother’s home at Mutwot village, about five kilometers from the school, and said she had been sent home to buy some books.

“My brother gave her Sh300 so she could buy the books from a shop at Mutwot shopping center. He even escorted her till she crossed a main tarmac road, hoping she could buy them and return to school,” says Henry Tarus, Chepchumba’s father. She did not return to school.

Tarus says the headmaster Joseph Magasi said they questioned some of Chepchumba’s friends, who said she had told them she would be going to Kapenguria, where her mother, who is separated from her father, lives. The head teacher told The Standard On Sunday on the telephone they contacted Tarus 20 minutes after they noticed the child was not in school. He says the pupil could have been stressed following separation of her parents. “But we cannot tell for sure if this is what made her leave,” said Mr Magasi.

But Tarus says: “The school matron told me Chepchumba had made a mistake and was to be punished on the day she disappeared. She said at times my daughter could steal her phone at night to call some people. They were at morning assembly and had been informed that after breakfast, she would take the punishment,” said Tarus.

Tarus’ wife Zainabu Chelimo has joined the search. Chelimo last saw Chepchumba in December when the child visited her in Kapenguria. She returned Chepchumba to Tarus when schools opened. “I reported her disappearance to Langas Police Station on March 26, OB number 26/21/03/014,” says Tarus.

Tarus, a constable at Kenya Prisons Service, has asked anyone who might come across the child to call him on 0722600417 or report to police.