Challenges police face in tracing lost people

By Michael Oriedo

A fortnight ago, CCI carried a story of a pastor from Eldoret who disappeared while on a spiritual mission to Nairobi.

The pastor had left her home in 2007 with a friend for a month long church work in the city but never returned home. Her phone thereafter went dead.

Worried that something nasty may have happened to her, her husband reported her disappearance to the police and endlessly searched for her at relatives’ homes.

For two years, all his efforts and those of the police to search for her were fruitless.

Beaten, the distraught man struggled to fend for his children hoping that one day his wife of ten years would return home.

But when CCI published the story, a call came through that unlocked the puzzle.

Lucky break

The story helped track the missing pastor who has now found a new calling at a tavern in Lang’ata, Nairobi.

Her husband is among the few lucky people who have successfully managed to trace lost relatives and reunite with their loved ones, some who had disappeared for many years.

This incident brought to the spotlight the role the police play in helping to trace people who have been reported as missing.

Lost children at Nairobi Children’s home in Kabete. The administrators say most children are lost and cannot trace their parents. [PHOTOS: MICHAEL ORIEDO/ STANDARD]

Like in similar stories carried in CCI, the pastor’s husband had reported the disappearance to the police but they had been of little help. Ironically, the woman was living at a place she interacted freely with people including the police.

CCI sought to find out from the police what it entails for them to trace a lost person and how difficult the exercise is.

They confess that tracing a missing person is an arduous task that is challenging even to them.

"It is a complicated task," says Police Spokesperson, Eric Kiraithe. "The exercise becomes even more difficult when the missing person makes a conscious effort to disappear," he adds.

Role of the police

Kiraithe says chances of police finding such people are nil since they (missing persons) are aware they are being sought and they will therefore strive to hide.

Normally, he says, the role of the police in cases of lost persons is minimal especially when there is no crime involved.

"If it is a criminal incident, for instance kidnapping or baby theft, the police would use clues from relatives to track the criminals," he says.

However, most relatives of missing people report that their loved ones walked away from home or disappeared while on a trip, he notes.

"This may or may not involve any crime but it makes tracing them very difficult. This is because the lost person is in most cases mentally sound, knows home and has his relatives’ contacts. One cannot tell what happened," he adds.

Nevertheless, when a family reports at a police station of a lost kin, he says that they first interrogate them to get clues of how they can find the person.

"The police will then circulate details of the missing person to other police stations. This will be repeated periodically if the person is not found," he says.

However, if cases that CCI has published are anything to go by, the success of this technique is minimal.

Through the method, Kiraithe says police mostly rely on members of the public to get information about lost persons.

Initially, he says, the public would learn of a lost person when police announced through the media. However, Kiraithe says this service was stopped because of budgetary constraints.

Financial constraints

"It was a service the police department used to do but it was discontinued because of financial constraints," he says.

Kiraithe notes that it is easier to track a lost person in urban centres than in rural areas. "Most people in towns have access to communication services, therefore, a message about a lost person would circulate faster," he says. He recalls a case of a police officer who disappeared about a decade ago while travelling from Northern Kenya to his home in Kisii.

"He has never been found to date. We combed the whole country more than once looking for him but in vain," he says.

Rebecca Kariuki, an officer at Nairobi Province Children’s Department says that sometimes it is easier to trace a lost child than an adult.

"In most cases, when people find lost children, they take them to police stations where their parents can find them," she says.

However, she says this applies mostly to young children who have genuinely gotten lost and do not know details about their parents or location of their homes.

She, however, says that there are children who deliberately make an effort to get lost. "They cheat about their parents’ details. Some of them do this out of lack of trust but a majority lie since they do not want to reunite with their parents," she says.

Such children end up in orphanages where they stay for many years while their parents search for them.

Consistent cheats

"We have encountered such cases at our children’s homes. The missing child will consistently cheat so that they can run away from difficulties at home," she says.

She advises parents to check with the police, children’s department and court when their children disappear.

"Currently, we are housing 38 children who we cannot trace their parents. Some of their parents may have reported that they disappeared yet they are living at the home," she says.

Kiraithe says some of the people reported as lost may have died or they have been lured out of the country.

"It is the duty of every citizen to report to the nearest police station when they come across a lost person. This is the only way we can help each other," he says.