Missing daughter of Senior Magistrate found dead, body dumped in forest

The body of a missing nine-year-old girl has been found in Gitoro Forest, Meru County.

The girl, Maribel Kapolon was a daughter of Senior Resident Magistrate of Githongo Law Courts Ms Caroline Kemei.

She had been kidnapped on September 6 while walking from school. Witnesses said she was called by someone who knew her before she rushed to his car. She was not seen since then. She had been dropped by a school bus and was walking to her home when the incident happened.

Witnesses said then Maribel was walking with three other pupils of Consolata primary in Meru when a stranger called her by her name.

The girl rushed to the car of the stranger leaving the other children who walked away. Police explained then that the girl had been called in a similar manner by people who purported to be her relatives.

“The previous day to her kidnap, someone who claimed to be her uncle. Another man then called her the following day and she ran towards him and we assume she knew him,” said a police officer aware of the probe.

A search on the girl was then mounted since then with police and the family appealing for any information that would lead to her whereabouts.

It was until September 15 evening when police were called and informed a decomposing body of the girl had been spotted in a forest in the area.

Officers who arrived at the scene said she had one shoe and the body had decomposed. She was still in her uniforms when the body was discovered. The body was moved to the mortuary.

Police say they are yet to establish the motive of the kidnap and subsequent killing.

“We don’t know if it is related to her parents’ work or it was domestic issue. We are investigating to know if the killers made demands,” said an officer aware of the issue.

Detectives are investigating the incident.

Police said they are also investigating an incident in which a man who had been kidnapped from Nairobi’s Langata area was found dead in a car in Embu. It is not clear how the incident happened. The body was discovered Sunday night.