When Gift Nyambura left for school on the morning of October 14, 2022, her parents assumed she would return home in the afternoon with her friends as was the norm.
However, the six-year-old grade one pupil at Ngano primary school in Piave village in Njoro, Nakuru County has not been seen since.
That Friday morning was the last time the family saw Nyambura and one year later, she is yet to be traced.
Six-year-old Gift Nyambura, a grade one pupil at Ngano primary school in Piave village in Njoro, Nakuru County, disappeared mysteriously in October 2022.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi| Nation Media Group
If dead, where is her body? And if is alive, where is she? These are some of the hard questions her family has been grappling with for the past year without answers.
Recalling their last moments, Nyambura’s mother Mary Wambui said her daughter woke up in high spirits, and had breakfast with the rest of the family before leaving for school a kilometre away.
However, at 1PM Nyambura failed to come back home.
At 4pm, Ms Wambui became concerned when her other daughter came back from school without Nyambura and on inquiring about her whereabouts, she said they parted ways at 1:30pm at the school gate.
“That day I was not feeling well. When she left in the morning she requested that I prepare chips for her but she never came back,” she said.
She was later told that Nyambura left school in the company of her six classmates after sweeping their classroom.
One of the classmates who lives near their home informed the family that after they bid her goodbye, Nyambura was called by a woman who wore a black mask and the two headed towards their home.
However, the fifth born in a family of six was not dropped at home by the mysterious woman and has never been seen since.
“She is always the last person to reach home within the group. Her friend just told us that a certain woman called Nyambura by her nickname and told her to speed up so that they could walk together. That means the person who took our daughter knew her well or heard her name when the friend called her,” said the distressed mother.
Ms Wambui said that they searched for Nyambura at the neighbours' houses and after their efforts bore no fruit they launched a search party lasting five hours but she was not found. She had disappeared without a trace.
They reported the matter at the Piave patrol base before they were referred to Njoro police vide number 7/14/10/2022.
Nyambura’s father Kamau Chege said that on the day she went missing, he was away for work only to return home in the evening and find a huge crowd at his compound surrounding his inconsolable wife.
“I never knew that would be the last time I would see my daughter. If we knew that the day would turn out that way she could have remained at home. The news broke my heart. She was my friend; she could not sleep without seeing me. I miss her,” he said amid tears.
The family claims that they have been receiving strange calls from people who lie to them that they have Nyambura with the recent one being informed that she had been admitted to a hospital in Migori County and that they should send Sh3,000.
The family claims that they have searched for Nyambura in mortuaries, hospitals and children's homes with hopes of finding her dead or alive
"We appeal to the members of the public to volunteer information of her whereabouts. We are ready for either positive or negative results. Whoever has our child we just plead with him/her to return her back to us, her disappearance is tormenting us,” Nyambura’s mother said.
