By Wanja Waweru
At the time of the 2013 General Election, he was employed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in Ndururumo and had just recently earned his university degree.
And on April 20, 2013, Kelvin Macharia visited a shop in Nyahururu town after receiving his pay.
The same day, he was scheduled to have coffee with his college sweetheart in Nyahururu. Macharia wasn’t seen again after that.
He traveled to Nyahururu before vanishing.
His father, John Mwangi Wachira, 72, claims that his son informed the family that he had left for Nyahururu and would return that night with furniture.
“At the time my son went missing, he had gone to Nyahururu for shopping. But he did not return home. We have never heard from him again,” the elderly man told the Saturday Nation.
“He had just received his salary and told us he was going to meet a friend in town, buy some things and come back home. We later learnt that my son was to meet his girlfriend he studied with in college in Nakuru.”
Later, Macharia’s family discovered that he had met his date there and that they had spent the day there.
So what transpired following the meeting? Was Macharia taken captive?
The family of the first-born son who was 25 at the time is still debating these issues.
“Macharia was my first son and was the light of the family. His disappearance was heart-breaking,” the father of four told the Saturday Nation.
“We have been living in agony, spending sleepless nights wondering where my child could be.”
“Has my son been killed? I want to see him dead or alive. In my old age, I need him back home to help me take care of his siblings. I also appeal to security agencies to find my son.”
According to the family, Macharia’s phone rang on the day he disappeared. Mr. Wachira and his family started to worry about the young man’s location after he went missing two days earlier.
When he tried to call Macharia, he recalled finding that his phone was off. His kid had been observed with a young woman at Thomson Falls in Nyahururu, it was later revealed to him.
What transpired after the two visited Thomson Falls is unclear.
The family’s attempts to locate Macharia with the assistance of the police have been ineffective. They can only hope for his safe arrival back at home.
In an effort to help the authorities in their search for answers, the family reported a member missing to the Nyahururu police station.
Police located and questioned the woman who was saw with Macharia about his disappearance.
She explained to the cops that she had intended to spend the night with Macharia but that they had been ambushed by a gang who stole their cell phones.
The woman stated that after being harassed, the robbers left her on the roadside and made off with Macharia, Wachira told the Saturday Nation.
“We really don’t know where they took him, whether they killed him and dumped his body in the forest or in a river,” Mr Wachira said.
“I had never met the girl until the day Macharia vanished. My son had not told me if he had a girlfriend. It was the first time I saw her,” he recalled.
The woman was detained, according to the family, then released after giving a police statement.
Our attempts to find out the progress of the investigations were unsuccessful because the Nyahururu Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives seem to have forgotten about the case.
Benard Wamalwa, the head of the Laikipia West DCI, who has jurisdiction over the situation, forwarded our reporter to Nyahururu DCI chief Emily Kangangi.
“I am not familiar with the matter. The best person to give details of the case is the Nyahururu DCI boss,” Mr Wamalwa said.
According to Ms. Kangangi, Nyahururu was in Central Kenya when Macharia’s disappearance was reported, according to the Saturday Nation.
When pressed for information, she remained silent.
Hours stretched into days, then into months, then into years for the family, but Macharia was never located.
Ten years later, the grieving father and his family are desperately trying to find Macharia.
Mr Wachira said his son completed his secondary education at Ndururumo High School in Laikipia County before joining a college in Nakuru where he took a two-year diploma course.
News2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
News2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
Diaspora2 years ago
