12-year-old Nancy Murithi (right) holds on to Mary Wanjiru during the incident at Kerugoya police station on Sunday. Nancy disappeared from her home two years ago and has been living with Ms Wanjiru since. Photo/ JOSEPH KANYI
Emotions ran high on Sunday as the eagerly-awaited reunion of a 13-year-old girl with her parents aborted in Kirinyaga Central District.
It was a shocking moment for Mr Mureithi Karangi and his wife Susan as their daughter who disappeared two years ago disowned them at Kerugoya police station.
Things fell apart when the girl started screaming on seeing her parents. “I don’t know them,” the girl, Nancy Murango, shouted as she clung to a woman accused of abducting and holding her hostage.
Murango identified three of her siblings and wept uncontrollably saying she could not believe the condition they were in. “These are my brothers and sister who look like street children,” she cried out.
The girl went missing on October, 10, 2008, at Karumandi village, Gichugu division. Her parents had sent her to pick up a brother who was staying with their ailing grandmother.
When she failed to return they reported she was missing at Kianyaga police station. Their two-year search ended on Saturday when she was found working as a house help at Mununga, Ndia division.
Two women were arrested and one confessed she had lived with the girl for a long period. Nancy’s parents were in shock: “We feel bad and shocked,” was all the father could say.
At one point, Mrs Karangi wondered loudly what had become of her daughter.“I expected my daughter to be happy and joyous but it is not the case,” she said.
Area police boss Patrick Oduma said the girl could not be handed over to the couple following the incident. “Now that the girl is hostile to her own parents we have to suspend the ceremony and investigate why she was behaving like that,” he said.
Mr Oduma said the couple had proved she was their daughter. He added that the woman who was staying with the girl will be charged with child trafficking.
Source: Daily Nation
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