A minor who was reported missing from his parent’s home in Mlolongo, Machakos County, was found alive in Kakamega on March 12.
The two-year-old boy was reportedly abandoned by an unknown woman at a residential home in Matungu at 6:00 pm on Saturday, March 11.
Jerine Okello stated that she found the boy within the compound and reported the matter to the police who granted her temporary custody of the boy until Monday, March 13, when further action would have been taken.
“After finishing my chores, I saw a child waving at me from a distance and called my husband who told me that he did not know who the child was,” Okello explained.
Following a news feature by Citizen TV on Saturday, March 11, the father of the boy, Boniface Kinywa travelled to Mumias to confirm the reports.
After a three-hour interrogation to determine whether he knew the boy, the man was reunited with his son.
The boy was first reported missing on Friday, March 10, after he was left under the care of a house help.
According to the house help, she briefly went to the kitchen to get some porridge only to discover that the baby she had left in the living room was missing.
After 30 min search, she decided to call the parents of the boy who had left for work that morning.
“I went to get some porridge and decided to close a running tap. When I came back to the living room where I had left the child, I did not find him,” the house help narrated.
The mother of the boy was informed by residents around the area that they had spotted a woman escaping with a child in her arms
“At around 9:30 am, the house help called me to tell me that my baby had been taken by an unknown person,” the boy’s mother stated.
According to the Directorate of Children Services, that was not an isolated case as many families in country continue with the search fr their children.
"Between January and May 2022, 6,374 cases of missing children were reported," the directorate stated.
