• Gakwa's last contact with her family was on February 24, 2022, when she spoke to her parents in Nairobi via WhatsApp video call.
• The petition signed by more than 30,000 people on Change.org since September last year was delivered to Governor Mark Gordon in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Friday.
Image: INTERNET
An online petition initiated by Kenyans has been delivered to state authorities in the US to pile pressure for justice following the disappearance of Kenyan Irene Gakwa a year ago.
Gakwa's last contact with her family was on February 24, 2022, when she spoke to her parents in Nairobi via WhatsApp video call.
On Friday, Kennedy Wainaina delivered the ‘Justice for Irene Gakwa’ petition to Governor Mark Gordon in Cheyenne, Wyoming for authorities to make her whereabouts known or serve justice in case a crime was committed.
"These signatures are a testament that the public would like a speedy conclusion to this case and Irene Gakwa’s whereabouts made public and known," he said.
The petition has been signed by more than 30,000 people on Change.org since September last year.
Copies of the petition were also delivered to the Gillette City Council and the Gillette Police Department.
"Irene Gakwa’s disappearance has baffled not only her immediate family and friends but people of goodwill not only in Gillette, Wyoming but the world over," Stacy Koester, a volunteer involved in Gakwa's search said.
Wainaina expressed optimism that the signatures would ensure more efforts are put in place to trace her.
Gakwa, who was 32 at the time of her disappearance, was living with Nathan Hightman, a man believed to be her boyfriend, in Gillette, Wyoming.
Authorities in the US treat him as a person of interest in her disappearance.
Gakwa's family reported her missing on March 20 after a series of video calls to her went unusually answered.
In an interview with CNN last year, her father Francis Kambo said her last Whatsapp message was on March 9 after she claimed her phone had fallen in the water and couldn't make video calls.
"I just want you to know I love and miss you and mom," Kambo said in one of the messages read.
Hightman was arrested and charged in May 2022 after he allegedly depleted her credit card, changed her banking password and deleted her email after her disappearance.
He told police Gakwa packed her bags one night and left in a dark SUV never to be seen again.
Gakwa is the only daughter and the youngest child in a family of three children.
Her two older brothers, Chris Munga and Kennedy Wainaina were living in the US in the Idaho city of Meridian at the time of her disappearance.