Promise of better life a mirage three years later

Kakamega, Kenya: On a chilly morning of March 3, 2012, Chrispinus Waballa Owiti bade his wife, Centrilla Owiti, goodbye at the Lung’anyiro bus stop.

He was jovial as he stepped into his future plans. He was heading to Nairobi in search of greener pastures and promised to send money for their son’s secondary school fees as soon as he found a job.

Waballa called the following morning to inform his wife and seven children of his safe arrival in the city. That call, as fate would have it, was the last time they heard from him.

“He went to his brother’s house and left his luggage with the security guards, promising to return when his brother came back home from work in the evening.

“But he neither returned for his bags nor contacted his brother again,” recounts Centrilla, who married Chrispinus in Mung’ore village of Matungu, Kakamega County, in 1994.

Centrilla says their marriage was stable and happy. She fails to understand what caused her husband to abandon his family and disappear into thin air.

“We were childhood friends, neighbours and school mates. The entire village knew about our love and when we came of age, our parents blessed our marriage. He left when our love was at its best. He left me with an eight-month-old baby,” says Centrilla.

“Our first born son, Evans Waballa (now 17), had just registered to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams and he decided to look for a job in Nairobi so that by the time our son joined secondary school, we would be ready with the fees. It is now exactly three years down the line, we are still waiting for him to come back.”

Their second child, Brenda Owiti, 13, is now in Standard Seven. Two of her younger siblings do not remember their father’s face.

Evans completed his primary school education, scoring 356 marks out of a possible 500. He qualified to join St Paul’s Amukura Boys’ School but his mother was unable to pay the required fees, forcing him to join the local day school, Lung’anyiro Secondary.

Although Centrilla’s home is in a sorry state, she says culture does not allow her to build a house in her  husband’s absence.

“If I build a new house, I will be forced to remarry and that will mean I forget about the love of my life. Even so, which man will want to marry a woman with seven children?

“I plead with him whenever he is, to come back home because we really miss hi,” she continues.

“Life has become hard for us; we cannot afford school fees any more, putting food on the table is a struggle and Mother cannot make it alone. If you read this, come back home, Father,” pleads Evans, who says he has never forgotten his father’s face.

Brenda, a pupil at Mung’ore Primary School, remembers her father as a loving, funny and joyous man, who was always there for the family.

“He would buy me presents every time I did well in school. I have vowed to perform even better and pass with flying colours to make my father happy wherever he is. He prophesied that I would be a doctor and I want to fulfill that prophesy,” says Brenda.

Centrilla has been to Nairobi, visiting each of her husband’s relatives in search of him to no avail. She holds a faded passport photo of her husband, the only one she has. She says her hope now lies in prayer.

“In God I trust. I believe that one day, I will see my husband. He will come back home the same way he left. My husband is alive and he will come back.” Centrilla holds on to that hope.