It's heart-wrenching when young children go missing and their families search in vain.
But adults — with wives, husbands, children and parents — also go missing and the circle of pain is larger.
In Nakuru, two brothers met for lunch at a hotel exactly two weeks ago on Tuesday. Then their phones were switched off. They've never been switched back on. It' not easy to kidnap two grown men.
Joseph Ngugi, 37, is a teacher at Kijabe Girls’ High School. His brother Moses Kamau, 39, is a land broker in Nakuru.
Since they disappeared, their family has been meeting every day at their grandmother's home in Kwa Amos, Bahati, to ponder their mysterious disappearance.
They've contacted the police and their acquaintances.
Their ancestral home is in Engashura, Bahati, Nakuru county, where Kamau lived with two wives and his children.
Ngugi lives with his family at Salgaa Trading Centre along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway
On September 21, Ngugi left home to attend a wedding committee meeting at Engashura.
The meeting was to start at around 10am. He arrived in Nakuru town at 11am that Monday and contacted his brother for lunch at a hotel.
Held up at the lunch, Ngugi called the wedding committee chairman, asking him to carry on without him as he was running late. He had insisted on meeting his brother first because they had not been in touch for many days.
However, a few minutes past 1pm, Kamau’s wife Mary Mweru called him but he did not answer. She tried again an hour later and he did not pick. About 30 minutes later, Kamau’s phone was not going through. It was switched off.
The panic button was also off.
Ngugi's phone too was switched off when wedding committee members and his two wives tried to reach him.
Family sources indicate a third person joined them for lunch. But who?
Grace Njoki, the brothers' aunt, confirmed their phones have been switched off throughout the entire period of their disappearance.
They are frustrated and anxious as the information they have pieced together is sketchy.
(Edited by V. Graham)
