When Muli (name changed to protect identity) arrived at her home in Mumbuni, Kitui County, on January 27, 2014, she found her three-year-old daughter missing. Initially, she was not worried about it as she knew the little one was playing with friends.
Her other children told her that the little one had left home – almost as soon as she arrived from nursery school – together with a 16-year-old boy from the neighbourhood ostensibly to graze goats.