The Swahili say "Uchungu wa mwana aujuaye mzazi", which is just another saying unless you are going through the same ordeal as SM.
More than three years ago on November 28, 2020, SM's children; a girl aged six years and a boy aged a year and eight months, were allegedly abducted.
They lived at Roasters along Thika Road in Nairobi County.
On the dreadful day, SM was at work when she was told that their father, who she had allegedly separated from, had come to visit the children.
SM would be notified that the children had gone out with the man for candies at a nearby shop and they would be back before long.
According to SM, it has been three years and some months since she saw her babies and the man allegedly responsible for the alleged abduction has remained elusive.
"They never came back that day, up to date. They left with their aunt and their father," a brokenhearted SM told the Star.
As we talked, she shared one of the memories she holds dear.
It was a month before the alleged abduction, during her daughter's birthday.
"I remember making my girl's hair, dressing her up and she was very sensitive because of her friends so everything had to be perfect, so she scored points," she said, audibly emotional.
"We were the three of us; me and the children. She had invited her friends to the party, and they kept playing Lil Nas's country song (Old Town Road) over and over."
SM went on to narrate how she had to get two cakes because her son also wanted one of his own.
"Her cake was Moana themed," she paused, adding, "Those are the details of the last birthday that we ever celebrated together. This was three years ago."
Fast forward to the alleged abduction, SM says she reported the case where the officer receiving the case allegedly refused to give her an OB number.
SM claimed the police told her to contact her family for them to return the children, but they never did.
SM says after several visits to the station since November 2020; she finally was given an OB number in January 2021, two months later.
Upon alleged failed attempts to have them move to court with her she personally and through a pro-bono lawyer moved to Milimani Law Courts family division.
Here the station was asked to help in the investigations however she was allegedly informed that for them to travel to trace the children she had to pay per diem to the police, accommodation and fuel the vehicle.
SM claims she was further informed that she would have to allegedly pay Sh3500 for every location to be done, a fee she paid once via M-pesa to the number she was allegedly given by the officer handling her case.
However, SM says she found that not sustainable and moved back to the family court where the DCI headquarters were asked to intervene together with the nearest police station of the abductors.
When she went to the headquarters she was referred to the Children Protection Unit in South C.
"At some point in the case, two people were arraigned but the court let them go with the promise that they would bring the children to court," SM alleges.
"Till to date they have never shown up to court despite court summons and when I and my lawyer requested the court for the two who knew the whereabouts of the children be committed to Civil jail for contempt of court; the request was not only denied but also the case file closed," SM further alleges.
This prompted her to appeal to the High Court where DCI was ordered to investigate the whereabouts of the minors.
"It is hereby ordered that the Director, DCI be and is hereby directed to investigate the whereabouts of the minors and report their findings to this honourable court pending the hearing and determination of this application," the High Court order dated June 6, 2023 reads.
Some months later in November 2023, upon the report presented by the DCI’s Children Protection unit, stating they could not trace the whereabouts of the minors, the court noted that it lacked jurisdiction of the matter as it had taken a criminal angle given that the status of the minors being alive or dead was unknown.
The order dated November 8, 2023, added that "the Director, DCI is hereby directed to take over the conduct of the matter henceforth."
To SM, time seems to have stood still and she is still wondering how it is possible to have all the technology there is and still miss her children for over three years.
"For a department that looks for people without phones and these are people with working phones, they are yet to yield results. Are they alive or dead?" she wondered during our interview.
"It's been three years, three months and nobody has seen or heard from them."
On its part, the DCI's Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit said the investigations are ongoing. Although they cannot reveal much on the same, the officers, who are hopeful that they will succeed, are working on the case.
"For the sake of the children's protection, there is a lot about the ongoing investigations that we cannot reveal. But the investigations are ongoing," an officer informed the Star.
