There was every reason to smile after two-year-old Jane Wangui was re-united with her mother Ann Wanjiku (left) and grandmother Jane Wangui after the girl spent eight months in the hands of kidnappers. The family reunion took place at their Kianoe farm in Subukia, Nakuru North District an the weekend. Photo/ JOSEPH KIHERI

By  FRANCIS MUREITHI

In Summary

• Religious leader who ‘saw a vision’ leads mother to child after eight months

With tears flowing down her cheeks, Ann Wanjiku, 19, clung to her two-year-old daughter, Jane.

Hers were tears of joy; the overwhelming joy only a mother can feel at being re-united with a kidnapped baby.

The joy at the family home in Kianoe Village of Subukia in Nakuru North District was infectious. Many in the crowd at the re-union discreetly wiped away tears.

And when one voice rang out in a thanksgiving song Ngai wakwa ni munene — My God is great! — the rest needed no further prompting to join in.

Three policemen

Jamhuri Day marked the end of agony for the young single mother, a matron at a private school in Gilgil.

Ann had been told by a religious leader of the possible whereabouts of her daughter — having seen it all “in a vision”.

So, accompanied by three policemen and the religious leader, they had set off in search of the two-year-old girl. The group ended up in a Nyahururu town estate where, as it turned out, the child was being hidden.

“I heard a voice in the kitchen which resembled that of my daughter. At that time, nothing mattered,” she said.

On entering the house, a woman said the girl had been left behind by a househelp who had disappeared. Police traced her and arrested her and is now locked up at the Nakuru Central police station to face abduction charges .

Nakuru police officer Johnstone Ipara said during the eight months Jane was missing, “any tip we received was never taken for granted.”

Mr Lucas Lingole, the officer commanding Subukia police station assigned three officers.

Said Ann: “The eight months were stressful. I lost weight and could not sleep. I kept wondering whether my child was alive, whether whoever kidnapped her was showing her love.”

Her hands arched protectively around her daughter. Ann’s agony started on the morning of April 18, when she received a telephone call from her mother, Jane Wangui.

Her mother tearfully informed her of the baby’s disappearance. “At first, I could not grasp what my mum was telling me. I started shivering and sweating,” recalls Ann. She immediately asked the school principal for emergency leave.

Placed announcements

After her efforts to trace the child proved futile, she placed announcements over FM radio stations, but all she received were fake leads.

“I received many calls from as far as Eldoret, but most of the callers were pretenders. I spent a lot of money travelling from town to town.”

Some “comforters” offered to take her to witch doctors but she turned down their offers and instead knelt down and prayed. “I told myself: ‘If God gave me this child, he has all the reasons to protect her.’”

Last Thursday, her mother called to inform her that through prayer, a villager who is a religious leader, had had a vision and was shown where the child was.

This villager led them to a house where they found Jane under the care of a 53 year-old-woman.

“I’m planning a big homecoming party for my daughter this festive season to thank the Almighty God.

“But I would not like to undergo such psychological torture in my life again. Those who specialise in kidnapping other people’s children should face the full force of the law,” were her parting shots.

Her mother Wangui said: “God is great. I’ve been fasting for eight months. God has answered my prayers. This child was the first from my six children to call me cucu (grandmother)

Source: Daily Nation

By Vitalis Kimutai,

Corporal Bernard Kipkemoi Langat, who worked for the Kenya Air Force at the Laikipia Airbase, was by nature a quiet but likeable man.

So when he went missing one day in September 2006, his family and colleagues in the military were at a loss where to search for him.

Corporal Bernard Kipkemoi Langat in a past photo.

For his family, the three years waiting has been torturous, the silence deafening and the loneliness unimaginable.

They have searched for him in places they thought he would have gone including hospitals and mortuaries, but three years on he is yet to be traced. They have been to Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and Mombasa but they have not given up yet.

Langat, a trained aircraft technician, hailed from Teganda village, Bomet District. He was married to Betty Langat, a teacher at Tagaruto Primary School with whom they have three children.

Before his disappearance, Langat had just returned to his base in Nanyuki after spending a week at home with his wife, Betty who was sick at the time.

A day before his disappearance, Langat had called his elder brother, Eric Langat a director of Tirgaga Tea factory in Bomet District, informing him that he would deposit some money in his bank account. He had asked him to withdraw the cash and pass it on to his wife.

“When I checked my account, I realised he had not deposited the money. His phone was off,” Eric recalled.
“We learnt of his disappearance a few days later when his colleagues telephoned to inquire about his whereabouts as he had not reported to work for days,” Erick said.
Langat’s colleagues broke into his house at Thangitu Estate in Nanyuki town but found his belongings intact.
“Two phones had been left on the table but did not have sim cards and there was no sign of struggle,” Eric recalled.
The family was told by a senior military officer that the soldier’s personal file was clean with no cases of indiscipline.

The soldier in military uniform. He disappeared without a trace three years ago.

After the house was broken into, Langat’s personal effects were stored at the barracks for a month before being transported to his rural home.
His colleagues said the soldier had not skipped duty for the entire nine years he had served in the force.

His father, John Ngerechi, a former Bomet county council chairman, wrote to Defence Permanent Secretary on May, 15, 2007 seeking information on the mysterious disappearance of his son.

The Ministry of Defence responded in a letter dated June, 27, 2007, signed by a Mr Archer R C Nzano for the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of State for Defence.
“This is to inform you that Corporal Bernard Kipkemoi Langat was reported absent on September 20, 2006 after he failed to turn for duty on expiry of a time off he was given
to attend to his sick wife,” the letter read in part. It stated that a search had been extended to police stations, hospitals and mortuaries and to Germany where a friend was based but it did not yield any positive results.
“Corporal Langat has neither contacted his family members nor colleagues and his disappearance remains unknown,” said the letter.

It further stated: “Having been absent for more than 90 days, as a procedure, corporal Langat was declared a deserter.”

Ministry of Defence spokesman Bogita Ongeri confirmed this position and said they are still searching for him.

His wife recalls that Langat had left his work place on September 10, 2006 and arrived home to see her.
“On September 15, his colleagues called wanting to know if he was at home as he had gone missing from his work place. They said he had asked for an extension of his off days,” Betty told CCI.

Mr Eric Langat, the lost soldier’s brother.Photo/Peter Ochieng and Courtesy/ Standard

The last person he is said to have spoken to was his father. He talked to him after he called his wife and found that her phone was switched off.

“The only thing he complained of while on leave was a colleague who had declined to pay him back a Sh50,000 soft loan he had advanced to him,” Betty revealed.

The man had apparently failed to repay the money long after the agreed deadline had expired and repeated reminders went unheeded.
“To date, the man has not repaid the money even after we sent his colleagues to remind him to repay and help our family sort out financial difficulties after the mysterious
disappearance of my husband,” Betty said.

Children’s dilemma

At the time of his disappearance, his wife, a trained teacher, was unemployed but a year ago, she was employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The couple’s children are not aware that their father has been missing.
“The children keep asking me where their daddy went to and I tell them he went to work in a faraway station and will be back someday,” Betty said.
She added: “What can a mother in my situation do? I mean you are paining inside knowing you do not know the whereabouts of your spouse, yet the children expect an answer and you do not want to hurt them by telling them the truth.”

She says they had been communicating on a daily basis on phone before Langat’s disappearance that has deeply depressed his young family.
“I never switch off my phone hoping that someday, he might just call or some one might call with positive information of his whereabouts,” she said.

Source: East African Standard

By Ramadhan Rajab

More than one million aged people will benefit from a Government stipend in the Sh550 million programme, Gender Minister Esther Murugi has announced.

The first phase of the special programme targets 33,000 persons above the age of 65 in 44 districts countrywide where every household will receive Sh1,500 monthly.

Kenya becomes the fourth country in Africa to have a special stipend for its senior citizens after Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.

“The cash will address some of the needs of the vulnerable older persons in society, strengthening their capacities to improve their livelihood by reducing integrated poverty through sustainable social protection mechanisms,” said Ms Murugi during the launch in Mwala, yesterday.

Method of transfer

Some 750 elderly persons each from selected districts will form the first batch of beneficiaries.

The minister said the method of transfer of the cash would depend on the region, and will be through mobile phone transfers, post office or by electronic card.

Once a member has been enrolled to the programme, Murugi explained, he or she can exit only upon death, if the economic livelihood of the household improves, willing withdrawal, or if a household gives false information to enable him qualify for the programme.

Health and nutrition

She said baseline pilot programmes in the last two years in Nyando, Busia and Thika districts had succeeded.

“The scheme was a success, and the evidence from those districts indicate improved livelihoods in households under the cash transfer programme. With significant improvement realised in areas of health and nutrition, school retention, evolvement of local markets, food security, improved income and investments,” she said.

Murugi added: “Therefore, the sum total in investing the monthly cash transfers to the older persons will indeed break the intergenerational poverty that affects poor and vulnerable households.”

But a lobby group working for the elderly persons, HelpAge Kenya (HAK), although happy with the stipend, said it should be scaled up to reach all vulnerable old persons’ households.

“Apart from targeting all older persons, the amount should be increased to meet the skyrocketing costs of living,” HAK CEO Gerald Mwangi told The Standard on telephone.

Dr James Nyikal, the ministry’s PS, said the programme will empower the older persons economically hence making them even more productive.

Priority districts

EASTERN: Mwala, Isiolo, Mwingi, Moyale

WESTERN: Teso, Butere, Busia, Mt Elgon

Nyanza: Bondo, Suba, Gucha, Migori, Siaya, Kisii Central

COAST: Kilifi, Mombasa, Kwale Taita Taveta

RIFT VALLEY: West Pokot, Samburu central, Turkana, Bomet Baringo

CENTRAL: Murang’a South and North, Thika, Nyeri

NAIROBI: Lang’ata and Starehe

NEP: Wajir, Mandera, Garisa

Source: East African Standard