Family distress over disappearance of father

By KENAN MIRUKA

A barking dog dutifully keeps visitors at bay in the deserted compound.

But moments later, a young woman who identifies herself as Docyline Ochako returns from a nearby farm where she had gone to work. The dog calms down as it runs to her playfully wagging its tail.

Docyline, 18, is a distressed girl. She has been forced to work as a labourer in the village farms to raise fees to enable her register for KCSE exams.

Victoria Kemunto and Docyline Ochako display the picture of John Ochako Omare who went missing five years ago. {PHOTO: KENAN MIRUKA/STANDARD}

Her mother, Marcella Moraa, is away working in another farm. This is the routine they have been following as they agonise over the search for the family head, Mr John Ochako Omare, who left Mwamoriasi village in Gucha District almost five year ago never to return.

Ochako left on the morning of October 20, 2005 before breakfast and has never returned.
It has been almost five years of agony as the family struggles to survive without the man who was the breadwinner.

His daughter Docyline vividly remembers the day her father left as though it happened yesterday.
"It was very early in the morning when my father left. We had visitors and we were busy preparing breakfast for them. He wore grey trousers and a white shirt. He left without taking the meal," Docyline recalls.
Initially, the family thought he had gone for a walk or visiting a friend in the village.

But what began as an ordinary disappearance has turned into pain and suffering as the family’s search extends beyond the borders into Tanzania.
Since he used to occasionally leave for a drink in the morning, the family members did not bother as it was normal with him. They were, however, surprised when he did not turn up for lunch and later for dinner.
"In the evening he failed to turn up which was very unusual with him. We thought he had gone to visit some relatives," she adds.
The following day, the family decided to enquire if he had been seen in the village. They got information that he was seen walking towards Ikoba market in South Mugirango District.
That was the last they heard of him.

Futile search

"We have searched everywhere including in Tarime, Tanzania where his parents used to live. We have gone there for more than three times but we didn’t find him," says Victoria Kemunto, a sister-in-law.
A peasant farmer, Ochako used to suffer bouts of epilepsy and was under medical observation.
But the family says he lived a normal life despite the illness.
Most times he was healthy and engaged in farming. "He occasionally took alcohol and was a talkative man. He is tall, light skinned and was about 45 years old when he left," adds Kemunto.
Ochako was a father of six; four boys and two girls. The first-born is 24-years-old. Family members say he had not quarrelled with anybody when he left.
"We have visited Misesi area where we have relatives and Etago market but he was not there. We even placed an announcement with a vernacular radio station in 2005 but no positive report has come," says his wife Marcella Moraa.
In September 2008, a woman came from Tanzania and told the family Ochako had been sighted there. However, when his wife went there, she could not find him.
"We really believed he had gone to Tanzania because that is where his parents lived. That is where he was born. He had lost his national ID and had applied for another one," says Moraa.
"I have suffered, I have been cheated that my husband has been sighted in some places only for me to waste money travelling, as the information turns false. It has not been easy raising my six children without my husband," says
Moraa.

No answers

"I have always believed he is alive somewhere and that he will return some day. Despite his medical condition, he had a vital role to play in raising our family and his absence is really felt," she adds.
Moraa says her husband used to suffer bouts of epilepsy and he could shout claiming some people wanted to kill him.
His first-born daughter got married recently while the last-born is in class six. Moraa now works in neighbouring farms to raise money to meet her family’s needs. Some of her children also do the same to supplement the family income.
To the family, it is an endless muddle of questions that have no answers.
"We miss our father very much. Though he was sick, he could help mother to fend for us when he was well. Now it is has become difficult to raise school fees. We are forced to engage in casual labour to survive," says Docyline.

Now the family is appealing to anyone who may have seen Ochako to report to Boochi Sub Location assistant chief or any police station.