Was Kakamega mother abducted to subvert justice?

Evelyn Indakala’s family members who are eagerly awaiting her return. [PHOTOS: ROBERT AMALEMBA/STANDARD]

KAKAMEGA: Joseph Tatuli’s family of Lutali, Kakamega County, is in agony after their Standard Seven daughter Evelyn Indakala Tatuli disappeared without a trace on December 14, 2014.

Tatuli, 55, says at the time of her disappearance, his 17-year-old daughter was a key witness in a defilement case.

Citing a possible conspiracy to defeat justice, Tatuli opined that this could be why his daughter went missing.

“She left just as I was preparing to take her to the hospital where she was to fill police forms pertaining to her defilement,” he said.

Her mother, Beatrice Tatuli, said Evelyn was a reserved child and an average performer in class.

“Since her disappearance, I have had sleepless nights. It pains me to think she could be dead or serving time in a fortress.

I just need to satisfy my heart by finding out the truth about what happened to my daughter,” Beatrice says.

The parents say a week prior to her disappearance, Evelyn was discovered to have a cell phone - an unlikely piece of hardware for a Standard Seven pupil in the village.

Disturbed, they asked her to explain where it came from but she dodged their questions.

The family’s woes began on the night of December 12, when Evelyn is said to have received a call that made her sneak out of her mother’s house where she slept.

“When I was alerted by her siblings that she was missing, I immediately started a search with the help of the village head man and we found her in the house of a certain youth.

We actually pulled her from under his bed and escorted the two to Kambiri Administration Police Line where the 19-year-old man was accused of defilement following a medical examination,” Tatuli said.

The next day, Evelyn’s eldest brother Boniface Mandu said they took her through counseling and she seemed positive.

“We assured her that no one was going to discriminate against her following the incident and she looked settled. We then agreed that she would co-operate in bringing the accused to justice.

On the morning she disappeared, she was to go to Kakamega and fill out police documents,” Mandu says.

The young man in whose house Evelyn was found is currently in Kakamega Remand Prison. His release on bond was cancelled following this disappearance.

The last person to see Evelyn was a relative who says he saw her aboard a boda boda at Kambiri Market headed to Kakamega.

Tatuli’s family has now resorted to combing through relatives’ homes, to see if she is seeking refuge there, and in hospitals just in case she fell ill and was admitted. “We have been to Mumias, Shinyalu, Tiriki anf Kaimosi and but have never found her. We also visited a man of prayer who assured us that she is still alive,” said Tatuli.