Have you ever been arrested? Think about it, either for a petty mistake like being a normal Kenyan guy, headed home late at night and waking to take a matatu at the CBD, next thing you know ‘Ebu kijana kuja hapa’. The Police are on your case and it turns out ‘utalala ndani’. In a recent scenerio, Likoni OCPD Benjamin Rotich reported that the police are still looking for a missing minor. The minor’s sister said her disappearance is puzzling, since she walked of the cells with the file containing her medical report. Interesting right?
The Family of the 13-year-old girl who went missing about three weeks ago after spending a night at the Likoni Police Station where she was booked alongside a 23-year-old man, has resorted to paying youths to find her whereabouts after police told them cases of people disappearing from their cells is not unusual. Trouble for the Mtongwe Primary School pupil started on the morning of January 23 when she packed her bag and headed to school as usual. But afew hours later, when her sister went to buy vegetables at the Likoni Channel she bumped into her in the company of the young man.
“When I reached the (Likoni) Channel, I saw someone who resembled my sister and when I got closer I saw her with a man who was holding her on the shoulder,” said her sister. Alarmed, the minor’s sister sought assistance from nearby security guards who arrested the man. She was later directed to report the incident to Likoni Ferry Police Station. “After some hours, a Land Cruiser came for us and we went to Likoni Police Station where I left my sister and the man booked at the cells,” she said.
The next day, the sister went to the station to follow up on the minor’s case but was informed she had been taken to Likoni Health Centre for a medical check-up. On reaching to the hospital, a female officer who had accompanied the sister to check the minor, requested that they go enquire with the school whether she had reported to school previously. Before they reaching the school, a police officer called the policewoman who was with the minor’s sister to ask if they had left the health centre with her.
“The teachers said that the girl did not report to school that day. We went back to the station and to my utter shock I was informed that my sister was missing from the cells,” she said.
More puzzling was police officers’ revelation that the minor disappeared with a file that had her medical test results. To date, the woman has not heard about her sister, the last born in a family of seven.
The man she was with has since been charged with defilement charges at the Mombasa Law Courts. Contacted on Monday over the missing teenager, Likoni OCPD Benjamin Rotich said they are still searching for her. Frustrated, the teen’s sister has resorted to paying local youths to help her trace the younger sibling after police told her people going missing from the station is rather normal. “I am still shocked how she could go missing from the station,” she said.