There was every reason to smile after two-year-old Jane Wangui was re-united with her mother Ann Wanjiku (left) and grandmother Jane Wangui after the girl spent eight months in the hands of kidnappers. The family reunion took place at their Kianoe farm in Subukia, Nakuru North District an the weekend. Photo/ JOSEPH KIHERI
By FRANCIS MUREITHI
In Summary
Religious leader who ‘saw a vision’ leads mother to child after eight months
With tears flowing down her cheeks, Ann Wanjiku, 19, clung to her two-year-old daughter, Jane.
Hers were tears of joy; the overwhelming joy only a mother can feel at being re-united with a kidnapped baby.
The joy at the family home in Kianoe Village of Subukia in Nakuru North District was infectious. Many in the crowd at the re-union discreetly wiped away tears.
And when one voice rang out in a thanksgiving song Ngai wakwa ni munene — My God is great! — the rest needed no further prompting to join in.
Three policemen
Jamhuri Day marked the end of agony for the young single mother, a matron at a private school in Gilgil.
Ann had been told by a religious leader of the possible whereabouts of her daughter — having seen it all “in a vision”.
So, accompanied by three policemen and the religious leader, they had set off in search of the two-year-old girl. The group ended up in a Nyahururu town estate where, as it turned out, the child was being hidden.
“I heard a voice in the kitchen which resembled that of my daughter. At that time, nothing mattered,” she said.
On entering the house, a woman said the girl had been left behind by a househelp who had disappeared. Police traced her and arrested her and is now locked up at the Nakuru Central police station to face abduction charges .
Nakuru police officer Johnstone Ipara said during the eight months Jane was missing, “any tip we received was never taken for granted.”
Mr Lucas Lingole, the officer commanding Subukia police station assigned three officers.
Said Ann: “The eight months were stressful. I lost weight and could not sleep. I kept wondering whether my child was alive, whether whoever kidnapped her was showing her love.”
Her hands arched protectively around her daughter. Ann’s agony started on the morning of April 18, when she received a telephone call from her mother, Jane Wangui.
Her mother tearfully informed her of the baby’s disappearance. “At first, I could not grasp what my mum was telling me. I started shivering and sweating,” recalls Ann. She immediately asked the school principal for emergency leave.
Placed announcements
After her efforts to trace the child proved futile, she placed announcements over FM radio stations, but all she received were fake leads.
“I received many calls from as far as Eldoret, but most of the callers were pretenders. I spent a lot of money travelling from town to town.”
Some “comforters” offered to take her to witch doctors but she turned down their offers and instead knelt down and prayed. “I told myself: ‘If God gave me this child, he has all the reasons to protect her.’”
Last Thursday, her mother called to inform her that through prayer, a villager who is a religious leader, had had a vision and was shown where the child was.
This villager led them to a house where they found Jane under the care of a 53 year-old-woman.
“I’m planning a big homecoming party for my daughter this festive season to thank the Almighty God.
“But I would not like to undergo such psychological torture in my life again. Those who specialise in kidnapping other people’s children should face the full force of the law,” were her parting shots.
Her mother Wangui said: “God is great. I’ve been fasting for eight months. God has answered my prayers. This child was the first from my six children to call me cucu (grandmother)
Source: Daily Nation
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