No clues on schoolgirl missing for 25 days

A 12-year-old girl from Marigat, Baringo South, has been missing for almost a month.

Stella Jepchumba, a Class 7 pupil at Kimorok Primary School, didn't return home after attending the Kimalel Goat Auction on December 21 last year with four friends.

“Our officers are yet to receive any information about her whereabouts” Marigat but the OCPD Benjouliffe Munuve told the Star on Wednesday.

Munuve said the girl "is active in learning and interested in education”.

He called on residents to come forward with any information to help locate her.

Her father Joseph Kiplimo said his daughter woke up happy that morning, did her chores and asked permission to join four other girls to attend the Kimalel Goat Auction.

“But she never returned back home with them later that evening,” Kiplimo said. He said he was shocked when her friends told him they could not find her after the auction.

Kimorok Primary School headteacher Zipporah Koech said Stella has not reported for this term.

Kiplimo said the family immediately reported her missing to Marigat police station, “but we are yet to receive any substantive report concerning her whereabouts”.

He said when she left home she was wearing black trousers, a blue T-shirt and a black-greenish dotted jacket.

Sources tell the Star the girl was spotted around midday on December 21 with her friends trekking across Kibele and Kimalel villages.

Her father described her as “a humble and disciplined girl”.

“Although she did not post good academic results last term, her teachers have never reported any indiscipline cases," he said.

OCPD Munuve said the area near the goat auction is notorious for FGM and early marriage.

(Edited by V. Graham)