Joy as girl, 5, reunites with her mother

Anne Wanjiku, 31, with her daughter Blessing Muthoni moments after they were reunited and allowed to go home together. [Photo: David Njaaga/Standard]

Christmas came early for a mother in Nairobi when she reunited with her five-year old daughter who disappeared two years ago.

Anne Wanjiku says her daughter Blessing Muthoni went missing in June 2014 when she went out to play with her friends.

She was then under the care of her uncle in Kinangop, Naivasha, and was only three years old.

She says the search had been agonising, but she would not give up. When she received a call last year from the Child Welfare Society of Kenya that her daughter had been found, Wanjiku was more than elated.

“I am very happy and I want to thank the government for allowing me reunite with my daughter,” Wanjiku said.

“We have organised a party at my brother’s place in Naivasha to officially welcome her home,” she said as she finalised travel arrangements to Naivasha.

The process to reunite the mother and daughter was, however, not an easy one, as they had to undergo DNA testing to confirm that they were indeed related.

It was a long and anxious process for the family, and it finally came to an end on Wednesday when Muthoni was handed back to her mother. Children’s officers said when the girl was found wandering alone, she was taken to a safe house in Naivasha before being transferred to Limuru Children’s Home.

She was later put under foster care for seven months while the authorities traced her family.

But when Muthoni’s family could not be traced, a Dutch family successfully followed the due process to adopt her. However, the process was stopped following the government’s ban on adoption of Kenyan children by foreigners.

The ban was informed by Kenya’s ranking by the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014 that cited Kenya as a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking.

The Dutch family had to surrender the girl to the child protective services as the case was being heard by the High Court and her mother was kept waiting.

The Child Welfare Society of Kenya took custody of the child for the past year as the case was in court, acting as the intermediary between Wanjiku, the adoptive family and the child. Wanjiku said she holds no grudge with either her brother or the family who had adopted her daughter.