Man who fled Kirinyaga home found in Lamu 5 decades later

An 83-year-old man who went missing from his home in Kirinyaga in 1973 has been found alive in Lamu County, 49 years later. Wilson Numbi Miato left his home in Kagio-Kiamaciri village at the age of 34.

The husband of two wives, Mary Wamulango Numbi and Milka Numbi, had sired 10 children when he left home. Each of the two women had five children. Seven of them are living while three have since died.

Mr Numbi was a rich man, owning land and houses, some of which he inherited from his late father.

But alleged domestic disputes forced Mr Numbi to sell everything he owned and disappear from his homestead, leaving his wives and young children behind, never to be seen or heard from again.

His third-born daughter, Pauline Wamwirua, was only five years old and in nursery school when her father vanished. She is now 54.

After Pauline married, she told the Nation, she searched for her father in different parts of the country.

Security guard

She recalled that, in 2011 she travelled from Kirinyaga to Bura in Tana River County to track down her father after she received information that the old man had been spotted working as a security guard at the Bura Irrigation Scheme.

But she did not find him there.

She also visited homes for the elderly in Mombasa and Nairobi but could not find him. Pauline said family members, including her own mother, aunts, and brothers, used to mock and laugh at her, saying she seemed to have money to waste on searching for a deadbeat dad.

But she never gave up.

“I began searching for my father in 2010 without success. It reached a point where I made a prayer to God to help me trace my father and enable me to see him before he died. I also asked God to help me trace my father’s grave if he died before I saw him.”

She shared her contacts on social media and other public places so that she could be contacted if the old man was spotted in any part of the country. Her efforts paid off this week when she found her aging father receiving treatment at Mpeketoni Sub-County Hospital in Lamu West, about 690km from Kirinyaga.

Dementia

Mzee Numbi was admitted to the facility about a week ago. Hospital administrators said Mr Numbi has dementia, a condition that makes someone lose memory, especially in old age.

He is also malnourished and needs hospital care. Pauline said the family was waiting for the old man to be discharged from hospital so they could take him home.

“In fact, he has an NHIF card sponsored by the Lamu County government. He has also been registered with the association of people living with disabilities here and is well catered for,” she said.

“Doctors posted his ID card and photos on social media that enabled us to find him. Our father uses a wheelchair but I am ready to take him home and reunite him with his family back there.”

After Paul Murimi Numbi, 52, the last-born child of Mzee Numbi, learnt that his father had been found in Lamu, he embarked on a 12-hour-long journey from Nyeri, where he lives, to go and see him.

In an interview with the Nation, Mr Murimi, who is a pastor with the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa (Pefa) church in Gitathi-ini, Nyeri, said he was happy to reunite with his father, who abandoned the family when he was only three years old.

Forgiven him

But Mr Murimi insisted that, although he had decades of hatred and bitterness towards his father’s actions, he had forgiven him.

“My friends in school used to mock me because of my father’s absence in the family. My mother resorted to drinking out of frustration,” he said.

“I was subjected to harassment and intimidation by my age mates, including my cousins, who used to chase us from their home telling us to go and find our father so that we could get land to settle on. They knew our father had sold everything.”

He added: “After seeing my father in Mpeketoni, first he rejected me but later he accepted me. We have forgiven him and he is my best friend now. I truly feel the warmth of having my father for the first time. I hold no grudge against him. I am ready to take him back.”

The two siblings said they must now convince other family members to accept their father back home after 49 years.

“We’re making arrangements to ferry Mzee back home, possibly this week. We’re also in consultation with the rest of the family members so they can also forgive and accept our father back. We’re also appealing to well-wishers to help us build a house for him. I have land for that purpose,” Pauline said.

Meet larger family

Mzee Numbi is expected to meet a larger family.

He will meet for the first time 35 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

All family members need psychological support to accept the old man back home in Kirinyaga, suggested Mr Andrew Masama, a psychologist with the department of social work at Mpeketoni Sub-County Hospital.

Mr Masama also called on Kirinyaga leaders, administrators, area psychologists and religious leaders to intervene in reuniting the old man with his family.

“[We are told] he will go back to meet both his wives, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom he has not seen in his entire life,” he said.

“This is a golden chance for both families to meet their absentee father and foster peace in their family and generations to come. They need to bury their anger and feelings of betrayal and shame and bring peace to both families.”

He added: “It is not an easy thing for children to accept their father after he left them when they were still young and he had sold all his properties before leaving them to poverty. But I believe all will be well.”

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