A family of a 19-year-old intern working with the Nairobi City County has pleaded with the government to help them locate their son who went missing one week ago and is yet to be located.
According to investigators handling the case, 19-year-old Elvis Munene's phone was last detected near the Mwalimu Cooperative Building in Nairobi on January 28.
However, his family last spoke to him a day later, on January 29, raising questions about the conflicting details provided by investigative agencies.
Before his disappearance, Munene worked as an intern at the Nairobi County Government at the Department of Information Technology.
Marion Karambu, the teen’s mother, revealed that Munene called her on January 29 to request transport. However, when she arrived home from work, she was shocked to find that he was not there.
''He called me at around 4:20 pm asking me for money to top up his transport which I did send him. From then when I got home at 8 pm I discovered that he had not arrived,'' Karambu shared.
''They tried tracking him, but the information they gave me was not convincing. I sent my son money on January 29 and that is when I last spoke to him but they are telling me that his phone went off a day earlier,'' she added.
However, what is even more baffling about the case is how the 19-year-old went to work on the day he went missing with all his identification documents left at home.
These included his work and national identification documents that he would at least have needed to gain access to his employer's premises.
''After searching for him, when we got into his room we found his IDs, the national one, job access and school student identification,'' Karanja narrated.
''So that is why we are appealing to anyone with information on him including the government to help us locate him and bring him home,'' he added.
Meanwhile, Munene's workplace confirmed that he reported at 8 a.m. and left at 5 p.m. on the same day. His parents stated that they had searched everywhere they thought he might be, but their efforts have been in vain.
''So we are asking where the data that his phone was last on a day earlier comes from,'' his father Karanja added.
Many Kenyans reported missing in recent months have either been found dead or in a state of mental distress. This is even as the government continues to bear the blame for increasing instances of abductions and forced disappearances.
