Double pain for wife of medic abducted in Kerio Valley as brother is hijacked

The wife of a medical laboratory technologist whose husband was abducted in Kerio Valley has suffered a blow after her brother was also abducted by a suspected police officer. Tecla Yano had been hoping to trace her husband, who went missing on May 2, before her brother also disappeared. Barely a week after her husband, Edward Kipchumba Terer, 47, was abducted in his workstation at Hope Clinic in Sambalat near the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot on a Monday, her brother, Mark Lomuke, was picked up by men suspected to be police officers in Tot, in the Kerio Valley. Lomuke was abducted six days after Terer was hijacked, according to Ms Yano and the missing medic's family. Yesterday, Ms Yano, a 36-year-old mother of five, was inconsolable as the whereabouts of both men remained unknown. The missing lab technologist left Uasin Gishu 14 years ago to work in the Kerio Valley as a laboratory technologist. Stacked amid family members who are demanding answers on why the medic from Megun in Kapseret constituency, Uasin Gishu county, was abducted in the volatile Kerio Valley, an emotional Ms Yano broke down as she struggled to gain strength to narrate the final moments with her husband before he was abducted. She was at their home in Kapseret when she was informed on a Monday afternoon that her husband had been abducted from his place of work and taken away by plainclothes men driving a police armoured personnel carrier. An agonized Ms Yano said her missing husband only informed her that he was working, only to receive shocking news that he had been abducted. "I don't know what to say. I was unwell the day he was abducted, and he didn't talk a lot. He only said that he was doing well at work," the devastated wife said yesterday in Eldoret. She said her husband was a polite man who could not get involved in criminal activities in the troubled Kerio Valley. Before her husband was found, a pained Ms Yano said, her brother was abducted on Sunday, May 8, and he was still missing by yesterday afternoon. "My brother was abducted in Tot on Sunday, and he is still missing," the tearful mother said. She demanded: "I want to be told where my husband and brother are. My husband has never wronged anyone and is not involved in activities in the Kerio Valley. He only does his job as a health worker." Terer joins the long list of people abducted in the Kerio Valley in what Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen described last month as an operation to eliminate suspected bandits. Bodies of Simon Yego, 45, and Collins Kipyatich, 22, were discovered and identified in Nakuru a week ago after they were allegedly abducted in the Kerio Valley. Terer's family, through his paternal uncle Willy Chesinge, gave the Ministry of Interior and the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, 24 hours to produce Terer dead or alive, and to give explanations on why he was abducted. He was a laboratory technologist working in the Kerio Valley, and he was not a bandit. He was not a resident, the uncle said. Chesinge said the frustrated family had sought information at the Tot Police station and Iten County Headquarters, but the police had told them that they had no information about Terer's whereabouts. "We want the government to tell us where he is and why he was abducted," said Chesinge. He said the Ministry of Interior and the Inspector General of Police owed the family answers on where the lab technologist is being held and why he was abducted by security apparatus. "The family has been agonized since May 2 to date, and Terer's wife and children have been crying, seeking answers on their missing father's whereabouts. We know that when someone is arrested, he is charged within 24 hours. Shockingly, Terer has not appeared before any court for more than a week since he was picked," he said. Terer's younger brother, Augustine Limo, for the 14 years the missing relative was working in the Kerio Valley, it has been all about health service. Limo said the police in Elgeyo Marakwet have been economical with the truth whenever asked about Terer's whereabouts. "We are in an agonizing situation. We have gone as far as mortuaries in Kapenguria and Sigor in West Pokot, Kapsowar and Iten in Elgeyo Marakwet, Kabarnet in Baringo, and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, but his body is not in the morgues, and we want the government to tell us where our brother is," the brother said. He added: "It is shocking that the police in Elgeyo Marakwet are saying no official report was made about Terer's arrest or abduction. We have gone to Iten several times to seek answers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, but we have not been given answers. We have sought answers in Nakuru, the regional headquarters, but the police have denied any involvement in my brother's disappearance." Limo said he was informed by locals in the Kerio Valley that his brother was abducted alongside Hope Clinic owner Nicholas Sumai, who was released by the abductors that night, as well as another colleague identified only as Hillary, who was also let free. He said the family reported the abduction at Tot Police Station two days after the alleged disappearance. "We are giving the government 24 hours to produce him before we take another action," Limo said. Elgeyo Marakwet County Police Commander Peter Mulinge maintained that he was not aware of the Terers' abduction.

Double pain for wife of medic abducted in Kerio Valley as brother is hijacked

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Related Topics

Similar Articles

Latest Stories

The Standard Insider

Digger Classified

GET OUR NEWSLETTER

CONNECT WITH US

FOR THE LATEST JOB ADVERTS

Similar Articles

New push to formalise garbage collection SMEs

The power of patience, psychology and strategy in debt recovery

Motivational speakers: When they sell you false business hopes

Africa Summit win for Kenya and continent, but on whose terms?

DIGGER JOBS

Digger Motors

Digger Real Estate

Double pain for wife of medic abducted in Kerio Valley as brother is hijacked

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Related Topics

Similar Articles

Latest Stories

The Standard Insider

Digger Classified

GET OUR NEWSLETTER

CONNECT WITH US

FOR THE LATEST JOB ADVERTS