An Embu grandmother is appealing for help to trace her granddaughter who disappeared from home six months ago.
Caroline Mwende, 22, left her grandmother's home in Kang'ethiri village in Embu county in December for the nearby Gikuuri market but never returned.
She had packed her belongings and informed her younger cousins that she was going to the market.
Her 80-year-old grandmother Luciana Igandu is distressed by the disappearance.
Mwende was a Form 2 student at Gikuuri Day Secondary School. She was orphaned at infancy when her parents Joseph Mwaniki and Rosemary Marigu died.
Since, then she had been under the care of her grandmother.
“I live in agony due to Mwende’s mysterious disappearance since I brought her up and I never saw her leave. I wish she stayed to continue with her education because I was ready to finance her studies,” Igandu said.
She described her granddaughter as a calm girl who never spent a night outside her home. Everyone in the family is distressed by her disappearance, Igandu said.
The family said they have searched for their daughter in all places without success.
"We request anybody who could be having information that can help us trace Mwende to let us know. And if she gets to hear our pleas wherever she is, let her know that we love her and we need her back with us," her aunt Pelista Wanja appealed.
Wanja blamed the Covid-19 crisis for Mwende's disappearance saying had the pandemic not disrupted learning, their daughter would have concentrated on her education.
Schools were closed for over seven months last year in government efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Edited by P.O
