A Lamu nurse who went missing in Eldoret on Thursday last week is yet to be found.
The family of Omar Faraj, a father of ten who until his disappearance worked at the Lamu King Fahad hospital in Lamu town, say he went missing last week Thursday while in Eldoret.
Omar had enrolled for a Higher Diploma in Pre-Operative Nursing at the Moi Teaching and Referral hospital in Eldoret since September this year.
The nurse was reported missing after he left the institution and headed to the burial of a friend in Eldoret town on Thursday afternoon.
The family is appealing to the government to help trace the nurse.
Omar has worked as a nurse in Lamu since 2011.
On July 27, 2014, days after Al Shabaab terrorists struck Mpeketoni, Kibaoni and Witu in Lamu West and massacred over 100 people, security officers raided and ransacked his house in Witu while he was away on leave suspecting that he treated injured terrorists.
The nurse was arrested shortly after that by anti-terror police and held for 16 days.
Speaking during a public inquiry on security by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights at the Lamu Fort in 2016, Omar said he was held blindfolded throughout.
He said he was questioned for allegedly treating Al-Shabaab militants in Mbwajumwali village in Lamu East.
He was later released without charges.
Speaking during a vigil to pray for Omar's safe return at his home on Monday, his father, Faraj Mbiki, said efforts to trace their son in Eldoret and in Lamu haven’t borne fruit and his mobile phone is switched off.
“Omar would call us daily without fail and so when he went for days without calling, we knew something had happened to him. We have tried his number but remains off until now. I have even gone to mortuaries but haven’t found my son. We have reported the matter to the Lamu police station,” said Mbiki.
The family is appealing to the government to help trace him.
His sister, Khadija Faraj, says Omar has two wives and ten children, all of whom entirely depend on him as the sole breadwinner.
The family insists that only the government is better placed to explain the missing nurse’s whereabouts as they have a history of abducting and wrongfully detaining him before.
According to Faraj, the disappearance of her brother has weighed heavily on the health of their 68-year-old mother, Mwanahadiye Faraj, whose health is failing.
The family says they hope Omar comes back, dead or alive as the situation has weighed heavily on his diabetic mother.
“We just want him back, dead or alive otherwise our mother isn’t looking well,” said Khadija.
