Bungoma family with money in hand waits for daughter's call

NAIROBI: On May 17 this year, Francis Simiyu received a call from an unknown number and the caller turned out to be his missing daughter Anne Simiyu.

“I am stranded. Kindly send me Sh500 so that I can board a bus home,” she mumbled into the phone saying she was in Kisumu but was yearning to return home.

Simiyu immediately sent the money to the number as instructed by his daughter and then the long wait for her return began. Six months later, they are yet to see or hear from her again.

In their Misikhu village home, Anne’s mother Gertrude Nabwa says despite the silence, the family is keeping hope alive that their daughter will come back.

She tells us her daughter’s problem started last year after she conceived while still a class seven pupil, which led to her dropping out of school. This worsened when she lost the pregnancy.

“The miscarriage really affected her and I had to talk to her in order to restore her self-esteem. As a family we tried to show her love and offer support. It seemed to be working because Anne even began to express interest in returning to school,” she says.

Nabwa says perhaps the fact that Anne got pregnant by a relative, a taboo among the Bukusu, could have had a more severe impact on her than they previously thought.

“The man who impregnated her is a relative who live in Bokole. My daughter learned that she had gone against clan laws by sleeping with a relative and had sworn never to do it again.

After she disappeared, we went looking for her at the man’s house but she was not there,” she said adding that Anne’s five siblings keep inquiring on their sister’s whereabouts.

Simiyu says from the phone call, he deduced that Anne is not married, but rather she opted to take up a housekeeping job just to make ends meet.

“I don’t think she is married. When she called, she told me she is staying with a woman at Ogunga called Mama Ocholla. Since then, that phone number has been inactive so we could not establish her exact location in order to bring her home,” he said.

Simiyu said the knowledge that his daughter is somewhere in Kisumu has seen him travel the 90 kilometres, from Misikhu, to try and find her.

“I have been to Kisumu and back hoping to find her but with no luck. We have also gone to all our relatives’ homes to see if she could be there but have had no luck tracing her so far,” he said.

Nabwa says she has sought divine intervention and has been “praying and invited pastors to pray with me so that our daughter comes back home”.

The family describes their daughter as one who is laid-back and who gets along with her siblings.

“She rarely talks or wrongs anyone and has very cordial relationship with her siblings who are now really desperate to see their sister one more time. I know she will one day return,” Nabwa said.