My kids fell mentally ill, vanished – mother

Mary Taaka is a mother of missing children, a pattern that has left her distraught, depressed and made her life meaningless.

She is a mother of four but cannot account for three of them.

The latest to be gone is her thirdborn, known as KAT, Taaka told the Star on Tuesday when she visited the newsroom to get the word out. 

Coupled with abject poverty, the mother says the depression is driving her nuts and pushing her to an early grave.

"I never imagined that I would spend my last years searching for children in the wind and getting skinned with unforgiving poverty," she said with a heavy heart.

The firstborn is a daughter who was studying pharmacy at Kenyatta University.

Taaka cannot remember when she last spoke with her, let alone see her.

The thirdborn has a similar story, only that he dropped out of school in Std 7.

At least she knows the lastborn son is at home in Samia, Funyula, in Busia.

“After he finished Form 4, he started doing jua kali to earn a living. He is at home,” the distressed mother said.

What is strange is that in most of the cases, the disappearance of her children follows a pattern that involves them going somewhat berserk before disappearing.

The latest case is in the element, she said. He went missing last Friday, May 6, when they were together at Railways station in Nairobi.

The 37-year-old son, KAT, had increasingly started showing signs of getting mentally troubled. He would talk nonstop, did not take any food but only water, and was increasingly becoming wild.

In fact, recently, she had taken him to Chiromo Mental Health Hospital, but the man became violent and escaped by jumping over the fence.

When they eventually made it back home in Kayole, where she stays, KAT told the mother that he wanted to go to Railways and see management, perhaps they would pay him up.

“He had been working there as a foreman but left. He said there were some of his dues there,” the mother said.

At Railways on Friday, when she sat with him in one of the waiting bays, the son just got up and walked to a crowd. Just like that, KAT has not been seen again.

Taaka reported the matter to the police and was given OB number 98/06/05/23.

But raising up the children, the mother, a single parent, never thought it could come to this.

She says KAT was a bright boy who passed his exams at Sigalame High School and joined Egerton University to study Bachelor of Arts in Criminology. 

He dropped out later because of fees issues and inability to get upkeep on campus. 

"I struggled so much raising these children alone, hoping they would turn my life around. Now see, life is getting even more miserable and distressing," she said. 

Taaka says she was an employee of Kisumu-based Kicomi between 1979 and 1989, and later got a job as a nursery school teacher at All Saints.

She later got terminated and now lives from hand to mouth.

She is hoping to find her children, sick or well. Her contact is 0756 604796 or 0729 849996.