Family's torment over two sons who went missing

Esther Kerubo and Maxwell Mankone at their home in Banita village, Nakuru County on December 31, 2024. Their sons Alfred Omboto and Vincent Motari went missing on March 10, 2022. [Daniel Chege, Standard]

A family whose two sons have been missing for the last two years says they have been in “constant torment”.

Maxwell Mankone, 80, and his wife, Esther Kerubo, 76, have been struggling to come to terms with the fact that they may never see their two sons again.

Vincent Motari and his elder brother, Alfred Omboto, went missing on March 10, 2022.

According to their parents, they were picked up by four men driving a Toyota Probox vehicle, who claimed to be police officers.

Kerubo said she is ailing and growing old, and just thinking about her sons, who have vanished without a trace, is taking a toll on her health.

“I look like I am 100 years old. I cannot sleep, eat, or speak, and when I sleep, I dream about my sons, which is stressing me out,” she says.

Kerubo adds that, as a family, they have searched for their sons, but it has reached a point where they feel they may never find them.

She also says that, as much as she wants the abductors to return her sons, whether dead or alive, she never imagined that people would exploit their misfortune to con them.

Kerubo reveals that strangers have been calling, claiming they know the whereabouts of her sons.

She says a stranger called months ago, saying the brothers were in a hospital in Kuria town, fighting for their lives.

She recalls that her other son, Benson Ayuka, travelled to Kuria, but when he reached Kisii, the person who had called switched off his phone.

“The number was traced, and we discovered the person was in Nairobi. It shocked us because we believed him and had hope that our sons were alive,” she said.

The family says the fraudsters have now stepped up their game. A recent call, made on December 23, 2024, was directed to Bahati Sub-County Police Commander (OCPD) Lilies Wachira.

Wachira contacted the Officer Commanding Station (OCS), who then reached out to the area chief, who, in turn, contacted the family.

Mankone says he made his way to the police station in Bahati, hoping his sons had been found.

“I was told that my sons were in Lamu County. The OCS said the brothers had fought each other and were now fighting for their lives in a hospital within the county,” said Mankone.

He says he reached out to Ayuka to follow up on the matter and was willing to pay any amount of money to bring his sons back.

Ayuka called the OCS, who gave him the number of the person in Lamu.

The man, identified as David Chogo, claimed to be the OCPD for Lamu Police Station.

“It wasn’t the first time I had received such a call, but this one felt very official, and I almost believed the stranger,” says Ayuka.

He says that when he pressed the stranger to share a photo of his brothers, the person, Chogo, asked him to send fare to facilitate their airlifting.

It was at this moment that Ayuka began to doubt the information, prompting him to ask the police to track the number.

“The number was traced to a location within Kisii County, our home town. I was devastated because my parents had been given false hope twice and they believed it because it came from local authorities.’’

“We don’t know where the abductees are being taken. But because we are children of ordinary people, no one cares,’’ said Ayuka