A woman who went missing 43 years ago leaving behind her three children has returned
back home with six more children.
Agnes Wanza left her Waita village in Mwingi central sub-county in 1974
leaving behind three children including a 9 months old baby.
But on Saturday, it was jubilation after she came back.
The firstborn Mwikali Katee who was left by her mother at a very tender age is now the assistant chief in Mwambui sub location, Mwingi.
By then, their last born sister was nine months old.
"I think family conflict is what made our mother leave us. We knew she was alive this November when two young men came at Waita market claiming to be sons to Agnes Wanza our mother. They narrated the whole story to us and we traced her. Got her with seven other children in the Kangere location in Central parts of Meru. She was married to another man there, " Mwikali said.
Mwikali added that problems started when one of their uncles passed on and their father was told to inherit the wife.
Their mother was too opposed to this and she ran away.
Moses Kirinya the son in the other family from Meru said they have tried for a very long to time to trace which part of Ukambani their mother came from as she had kept it to herself for too long.
“We never even knew that our mother had left other children in Ukambani, leave alone knowing where she came from. She couldn’t tell anyone her birthplace!” Kirinya said.
The son Moses Kirinya from Meru and Mwikali Katee the firstborn in their family. Kirinya comes from the other family of six in Meru. LYDIA NGOOLO
This year they pleaded with their mother to at least let them know her birthplace and luckily she divulged to them that she came from a place known as Waita in Mwingi, Kitui County.
On November 5 this year they started the search for their mother's place of birth.
To their shock, they come to know their mother had three other children and had been married to another man before she met their father in Meru.
“After we arrived at the market known as Waita, we alighted from the Probox which we boarded at Mwingi and asked for directions to the home of one Karanja Munuve. We are very happy with this reunion and welcoming party to our mother,” said Kirinya.