There was joy and celebration in the home of a family in Uasin Gishu County after their 17 year old son who went missing 75 days ago was found alive in the lake city of Kisumu County.
James Vala who was a form two student at Wareng High School in Eldoret town disappeared from their home in Langas estate on March 24 this year causing fear and panic among his family members and friends.
Speaking to Mwanahabari.co.ke in Eldoret town, Paul Matheka, the student’s father, said that he travelled to KIsumu town on Wednesday morning after he was alerted by his son’s former primary school mate to the effect that he had spotted him in a group of street boys in the town.
Matheka who was accompanied by three people in the search mission said that on arrival in the lake city spotted his son meandering along the streets of Kisumu town while sniffing glue and that he had also been introduced to drug abuse by his colleagues.
Recounting the struggle of trying to reunite with his son, Matheka said that the other street boys tried to block his attempt to take away their colleague from them saying that he was part and parcel of their street family.
Spending the night in verandah shops
He said that he had to use diplomacy to convince the street boys to allow him take back his son who had gone missing from home since March so that he can continue with his secondary school studies.
“When the street boys noted that I was the father of Vala, and I had come to take him away from the street life, they tried to scuttle my attempt to go with him to Eldoret saying that he was their good friend and that they won’t let him go with me,’ said Matheka.
He claimed that his son had been introduced to street life and was walking around the streets of Kisumu town in the company of other street boys with glue bottles stuck to their noses.
“I thank God for protecting my son from not reaching to the level where his brain could not function well due to the high rate of drug and substance abuse for the period he has been on the streets of Kisumu with other street boys,” said Matheka.
The student was taken to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where he was given a clean bill of health, according to his father who said that plans were underway to take him back to school.
I would like to go back to school
Talking to this writer, the student said that he regrets his mistakes and said that he would like to go back to school after learning a hard lesson while roaming Kisumu streets as he sniffed glue alongside other street boys.
“I boarded matatu from Eldoret to Kisumu town and met street boys who introduced me to bhang smoking and glue sniffing and besides, we also used to beg for food in hotels and market places. It was not an easy life as we were spending the night in verandah shops or sometimes in the garden fields,” said Vala.
Matheka and his wife Rose Mwongeli said they have been having sleepless nights coupled with stress and depression since their son went missing on the afternoon of the fateful day at their Langas estate home in the outskirt of Eldoret town.
Recounting the last moment with her son, Mwongeli said that she prepared lunch for Vala and his young brother, Alex Ndandu in Langas estate where they reside after which he excused saying he was going out for a walk.
We searched everywhere for our son
Mwongeli who sells groceries in the same estate said that when she came back home in the evening, her son had not returned from where he had gone for a walk, raising fear and agony in the family.
According to Mwongeli, it was the first time for their son to fail to show up on the material day, thus, prompting them to conduct searches in the neighbor’s houses and calling on family friends to no avail.
She said that since the school where his son learns closed on March 19, he has always been punctual whenever he came back home from a walk with his friends and that they were surprised with the turn of events on the fateful day when he failed to return.
Matheka said they had conducted searches in all public hospitals and mortuaries in Uasin Gishu County before extending the same search mission in South Rift, Nairobi County and their home county of Makueni and Machakos.