Family prayerfully awaits their son's return two years later

Lost without a trace: Elias Mwirigu Muguna. [PHOTO:FILE]

Elias Mwirigu Muguna is yet to return home after he was abducted by strangers two years ago. However, his parents, wife and siblings still prayerfully await his return.

Mwirigi, 27, was abducted on March 21, 2012 alongside his two friends at Githogo market, almost 5km from his home, in Meru County. A neighbour who was at the market came and informed Mwirigi’s family how a strange car stopped where the three were sitting, and four people came out and pushed them inside. Being a surprise attack, none of them resisted.

It then sped off towards Meru town. But no one knows exactly where the three were taken.

“The incident shocked our family. We kept wondering the motive behind it,” begins Mercy Kanyiri, his elder sister.

The family started looking for him. They reported the matter to various police stations in Meru, Maua, Isiolo and Nanyuki. The police promised to share with them any information concerning their lost kin. So far, they haven’t received any report from the police.

At the time of his abduction, Muguna, the last born in a family of five siblings - three girls and two boys, was farming and also planning to go to college. He had attended Kioru Primary School and later Kithirune Mixed Secondary School.

Muguna was also in a three-year-old marriage with Gladys Nkatha. Their son, who was a month old when he disappeared, is now two years and four months old.

Nkatha explains that it has been challenging coping with life alone after he left.

“Besides being the breadwinner, he left at a critical time when our baby wanted our combined attention, especially at night when he could not sleep,” says Nkatha.

Nkatha is, however, hopeful her husband will one day walk back home and meet his son. She prays, “I hope nothing bad happened to him, and he will return to us. It is the reason, two years after his disappearance, l am still in his house waiting for his return.”

His parents, M’muguna M’Ntwakure and mother Grace Mugune are yet to come to terms with their son’s abduction. They say he was a disciplined ardent Christian.

“Until l get to know the reason he was abducted, l still believe my son is innocent, and perhaps abducted accidentally,” says his father.

His mother has been in incessant prayers. “We are always praying to God to intervene and bring back our son alive,” says Muguna’s mother.

Unfortunately, those who were at the market did not identify the car’s registration number, which would have been crucial in tracing his whereabouts.