A family in Nakuru county had their moment of joy stripped away when the prodigal son whom they had reunited with died days after the momentous occasion.
Stephen Njehia who had run away from home for 20 years met his mother Rachel Wanjiru in a tearful ceremony putting an end to the ordeal of not knowing where her son was.
However, Njehia, 38, was not in good health as he had swollen legs when he was found. The family sought medical advice for his ailment.
He however passed on, three days after meeting the family he had abandoned when he was just a teenager at 18.
The family recalled that Njehia ran away from home after engaging in an argument with his father and burnt his hut. Efforts to trace him were futile and the old man Daniel Ndung'u died in 2015 without reconciling with his son.
The search for the young man led the family to Nakuru, Nyandarua and Nairobi in vain.
Njehia had been living in the streets after running away from his family in Rumuruti town with locals stating that he had been doing odd jobs to make a living.
It wasn't until they got a lead in August that they pursued and found him. Their first meeting was awkward as the man muttered incomprehensibly and the mother took some time to recognise her son.
But minutes into their encounter, Wanjiru took her son kissing him on his forehead before going for a big emotional embrace.
“I can’t believe that after all these years I have found my son, I thank God for finally re-uniting me with him. I would like to thank everyone who helped us in our search,” she remarked.
Wanjiru took a clean piece of cloth and washed her son's feet with water. Njehia was able to identify members of his family and even recalled a stream he used to pass through when he was a child.
"We knew our long search for our brother had come to an end and we took him to hospital as his feet were swollen and he looked sickly,” his sister Teresiah Njoki stated.
She disclosed that they would lay him to rest on Wednesday, August 25, at their Karunga home in Gilgil Constituency.
