Costly search for son bears no fruit

Pain, anguish and distress have characterised the lives of Moses Otieno’s family since his disappearance two years ago.

Though clinging to hope that his son will return, Peter Oluoch, cannot help the overwhelming sadness every time he sees Otieno’s twin sister, Ann Atieno. Since he disappeared, Oluoch has lost two other children.

It was May 2, 2012, when Otieno left his house in Kibera, Nairobi, to visit his sick sister who lived in Kariobangi. He was supposed to take her some cash to enable her seek alternative treatment, as trips to the hospital had not improved her condition.

Puzzling allegations

Oluoch says on the fateful day, Otieno did visit his sister, who died shortly after returning to the village.

“He took the money to her and as he left, she gave him a pair of gumboots wrapped in a green paper bag to enable him walk through the muddy Kibera slums,” recalls the distressed man.

He says after leaving the sister’s house, Otieno went to Mathare North to see his older brother Ben Sande but did not enter his house.

“He apparently met Sande’s wife who was selling tomatoes by the road. She told him Sande was not around and he left,” says his father.

The last person to see Otieno was a distant relative who says Otieno boarded a public service minibus that was headed for town but alighted immediately. The woman says she left him standing at a stage in Kariobangi.

His mother, Rosa Aduol, says she was called by her son’s wife Loida who told them of Otieno’s sudden disappearance.

“Loida was then eight months pregnant. We all moved to Nairobi briefly to look for him,” she says.

They asked his colleagues where he worked as a panel beater but none of them knew where he was.

“We searched in hospitals, mortuaries, police stations and Industrial Area Prison but there was no trace him. He just vanished,” Aduol says, wiping tears from her eyes.

They had almost lost hope of ever finding him when some relatives claimed Otieno called them early this year. 

“After he identified himself, he disconnected the phone,” one of them claimed.

One relative said he called back the number Otieno had used to call him, but the person on the other end picked up the phone and did not say anything. Whenever his parents call the same number, they find it switched off, leaving them wondering how genuine the claims are.

They have sought divine intervention from churches that claim to see things in the spiritual realm but the amount of money they have spent looking for their son has only left them poorer.

“We have left it to God. Someone once told me my son is alive and lives in Mathare. My search has yielded nothing yet I had parted with Sh7,000 to get the information that turned out to be false,” says a dejected Oluoch.