Man reunites with sons, wife who had gone missing

It is early Christmas for Philip Amimo who has been reunited with his two sons, Biden and Nicholas, who disappeared early January from their home in Jangwani area in Mathare slums.

Three days after he returned to Nairobi from upcountry for Christmas celebrations, when his wife Mitchelle Yolance disappeared with the two children.

She has been having occasional mental challenges due to an existing health related problem.

The first-born son Nicholas, then four years old, broke away with the mother and his younger brother in Nairobi Central Business District and went away on his own.

Despite his age, Nicholas still could tell where his home was and the name of his father made it easy for the authorities to track him.

“My children disappeared with their mother who has a health condition and was pregnant with our third child. I am grateful because today I have been reunited with my children. The children appear to have been well taken care of. They are healthy and the children were still learning. I am very happy,” Amimo said.

The children disappeared on January 14, 2023. He first traced the older one Nicholas now five years 10 days later on January 24 after he reported their disappearance.

On March 3, he found the mother at Mbagathi Hospital where she had been admitted after she went into labour on March 1.

The hospital had already handed Biden to Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) and by sheer luck he had been reunited with his elder brother Nicholas.

At that time Mitchelle gave birth to their now 10-month old daughter, Precious. For all this period, the two brothers have been under the care of the CWSK.

“The day the children disappeared, it was just a normal day. I woke up and prepared to go to my tailoring business. After breakfast, I hugged the two boys, bid farewell to their mother and left. In the evening after closing my business at around 9pm, I returned home and was greeted by an empty house.

The doors were wide open. My two boys and their mother were missing. I started searching for them in the neighbourhood but I couldn’t trace them,” Amimo recounted.

He narrated how he moved from one police station to another in Eastlands but none had records of lost children being found or in their custody.

“That night and those that followed, I wallowed in sleeplessness and despair. When I traced Nicholas, I was temporarily relieved. However, I couldn’t reunite with him immediately since CWSK has to carry out due diligence to authenticate that I am the child’s father,” he said.

He went on: “After their disappearance, my life came crumbling down.

Everything came to a standstill. I could barely eat. Searching for my wife and the two boys was my daily routine. And that’s how my days were. It was a season of distress; I had abandoned my business.”

According to Amimo, his wife is under medication and is attending clinics every two weeks which is helping to stabilize her condition.

Despite his financial constraints, he said, he will hire a house help to assist with house chores and take care of his wife and the children when he is away so that he doesn’t go through the same ordeal again.

Kadison Kiemo, a social worker with CWSK, says when the society gets information about children who have been separated from their families, it picks them and places them in their specific procedures within their temporary places of safety before they begin searching for their parents through various methods including media invites.

“Nicholas was separated from the mother in town and was placed in our care in January and the second child Biden came to our care when the mother went into labour. Mbagathi contacted CWSK to pick him in their facility from their hospital,” Kiemo said.

DNA tests

He added: “The procedure of handing the babies to the parents has several steps. It is a long and tedious process to ensure that the children are handed to their rightful parents.

For children of less than three years of age and who can’t communicate or express themselves we tend to do DNA tests for them and the individuals who are claiming them. In that case, we will be certifying that the children are going where they belong and to whom they belong to. Older children go through a photo identification test.

They are placed alongside individuals who look familiar or close enough to them and then they choose who their parents are and if all matches and works accordingly, they are identified as one and they are unified.”

During the actual reunification day, Kiemo said that the parents sign documents at the sub-county office and fingerprints are taken. CWSK then hands them to their parents and also gives them a starter pack of food items, toys, sanitary, school equipment and clothes if the rescued children are from a needy background.

The society also does follow-ups after reunification, to check on the progress of the family.