Three months of fruitless search for nursery pupil

Parents of Jemimah Muthoni ,five years old nursery pupil who got lost on 8th March at Pipeline estate,Plot 10 Area,Embakasi South constituency,Nairobi County.From Left is George Mugo and his wife Rebeca Waithera holding a picture of Jemimah at Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya church,Pipeline estate. [PHOTO:JAMES WANZALA/STANDARD.

For three months now, the parents of Jemimah Muthoni, a five-year-old nursery school pupil at Joy Junior Academy in Pipeline Estate in Embakasi, Nairobi, have been agonising over her disappearance. Searching for her has been in vain as leads have ended nowhere.

Every time they report the matter at a police station, they are filled with renewed hope that their daughter will be found. But days have passed and still, no sign of Jemimah.

So far, Jemimah’s mother, Rebecca Waithera, has reported the missing child at five radio stations, which have promptly announced her disappearance but it has all ended there.

Visits to children’s homes have yielded nothing either.

As they deal with the anxiety of looking for their daughter, someone else is adding to their torture. The person calls them using telephone number 0716466946 and asks them to send airtime so that he can tell them where their daughter is.

“We have reported this unknown caller to police officers at Embakasi, but the officers have not been of help to us. They just told us to ignore him because he might be a conman from prison who wants to play with our minds. It would be better if the CID probed this caller to explain why he is doing that,” says Rebecca.

She says the unknown caller started disturbing them in March after the first radio announcements. He said Jemimah was in Kabatini, Thika, and asked her to send him Sh20 airtime for him to call back and give more information.

She did so. But when she followed up, a lady picked the phone and hang up.

Again on May 14, the caller, using the same line called to ask Rebecca to send Sh50 airtime for more details about daughter’s whereabouts.

“I am sure my daughter is alive and is being held by someone just nearby. She is just a child who has not wronged anyone, why should she be taken away from us?” asks Rebecca, who walks with a crutch as one of her legs is injured.

She says her daughter got lost on March 8, a Sunday afternoon in the Pipeline Plot 10 Area, while playing with other children after attending church.

“On that material day, I left at about 4pm to go to hospital to see a doctor for my leg. After returning home at about 5pm, my daughter was still playing. I asked her elder brother to call her but he returned saying he could not find Jemimah,” says a distraught Rebecca.

“Since it was becoming dark, I asked my husband, George Mugo, to go out and look for our daughter but after a one-hour search, he did not find her too.”

Says Mugo, “I went the next day to Villa police post at Imara Daima and reported her disappearance and was assigned OB No: 26/14/03/2015. I was told that if she was found, the officers would call me. No call has come through since.”

After four days of anxious waiting, Rebecca went to Embakasi police station to report the matter under OB No: 32/05/04/2015. They later reported the missing child at Buruburu, Kayole, Industrial Area, Kilimani and Milimani police stations. In their search, they went to Mama Ngina Children’s Home, but there was no new child admitted there.

The couple has asked six churches within Pipeline estate to announce the child’s disappearance. Sometimes they attach their daughter’s photo to the churches’ notice boards. So far, they have received no positive feedback.

The continue agonising, not knowing what to do next to bring back their daughter.

“Since my daughter got lost, I have lost my appetite and sleep has deserted me. I am appealing to anyone who has my child to bring her to us or even to the nearest police station,” says Mugo, who does casual jobs to earn a living.

Rebecca has taken over the search for her daughter as the husband works at a coffee company on North Airport Road. He also buys and supplies mandazis to shops.

“We no longer sleep. Her brother gets hysterical at night and demands to know when his sister is coming back home,” says Rebecca as she wipes away tears of frustration.

They have incurred financial loss in the search. They pay between Sh500 and Sh600 per day for radio announcements.

Says Mugo: “Please, let our daughter go. I have not wronged anyone nor do I owe anyone money. Please release our daughter so that she goes back to school.”