Earnest search for mother continues 33 years later

By Kiundu Waweru

Thirty-three years ago, Ms Julieta Njambi left her place of work for hospital. She never returned. Njambi’s daughter, Elizabeth Kimani, was then seven-years-old, and on her mother’s “disappearing anniversary” she sends a public message.

“Mother I know you are alive. Please wherever you are come back home.” When her mother left on this day in 1979, Elizabeth was too young to comprehend the implications. After all, she lived in Nyahururu with her grandmother while her mother worked in Mombasa and would visit occasionally.

Demand to see grandmother

But as years wore on and Elizabeth grew to a young adult, the urge for having a mother to guide her in life’s journey grew. She says, “Most times I miss mother like yesterday.” The urge became intense when Elizabeth got children of her own. She is mother of two girls, aged eleven, and seven years. Travelling upcountry is a rollercoaster of emotions for Elizabeth.

“My daughters demand to see their grandmother,” says Elizabeth: “I tell them that she left home, never came back and we don’t know where she is...” Elizabeth breaks in emotions and adds that her girls just cannot understand how a grown up can disappear. “You should look for her...” the girls say.

But Elizabeth understands her daughters. She has come full cycle because when her mother left, she too was too young to understand.

Elizabeth is the second born of three children. At the time of her mother’s disappearance, she was nine years old, and the last-born, born of a different father whom her mother was living with at the time, only five months.

John Mwaura, a street preacher told The Standard that he started living with Njambi as husband and wife in 1975. They were blessed with a child in 1979. The couple worked together at the Mwembe Tayari market in Mombasa, where Njambi’s brother, Stephen Ndung’u also worked. We also spoke with Ndung’u about the fateful day’s events, but their account of what transpired was conflicting.

Mwaura remembers the events of the day. They were both at the market for the better part of the day, “About 1pm, my wife complained of feeling unwell and since we were almost through with selling the goods, she left for hospital,” says Mwaura.

Mwaura, who hails from Limuru but still resides in Mombasa, says he left for home shortly after Njambi. The house girl, Muthoni, said that Njambi had passed by the house before leaving saying she was going to hospital.

 “By 8pm, she had not returned,” says Mwaura. “By 9pm, I had started worrying.” He adds that he went to bed shortly after, and woke up at their usual time, 2am to go to the market. Ndung’u came to the market at 4am, and both men went to work, one worrying about the whereabouts of his wife, the other the sister.

By 6pm on August 19, says, Mwaura, they started searching for Njambi, starting with the Coast Provincial General Hospital where she had indicated she was going to seek treatment. “She was not at the hospital, nor on any other health centres for that matter,” says Mwaura.

“We reported the matter to the Central Police Station, and continued searching for her for days on end, which soon turned to months then years but we never got a hint of what might have happened,” says Ndung’u, Elizabeth’s uncle.

Indeed, even Mwaura concurs that no one had any idea of what might have happened to Njambi. Soon, family members were blaming each other.

Elizabeth however has a strong conviction that her mother is still alive. “I remember that once in a while in high school I had a vision that my mother is alive.” Since then, Elizabeth has been praying for her return. “Every year I enter my diary thus: “Mom, I want to see you this year.” She is not alone. Ndung’u says that when his father died in 1995 he asked Ndung’u to take care of his granddaughters, “My father added that, when they get married (Elizabeth and her two sisters), I take the dowry, and keep it well until my daughter (Njambi) comes back home”.

And for Mwaura, who says that at some point after the disappearance he suffered from mental illness, he also thinks that Njambi is alive. Mwaura has since become a pastor.

“I also see visions of her. I know she is alive”. Sometimes the ‘vision’ leads him to different places where he searches for Njambi in vain.

Now, the family’s only hope is prayer. Despite the turmoil she goes through, Elizabeth, the human resource and development manager at the East African Portland Cement has a sunny aura, a ready smile and a professional outlook. “I know I will see my mother someday,” she concludes with finality.