A family’s 10-year search for missing ex-policeman

A family in Nakuru County has been desperately searching for a former police officer who went missing 10 years ago.

Simon Kibet Tonui, a father of two, disappeared from Barut village in Nakuru West constituency on December 16, 2011, and has never been seen to date.

The man, who was born in 1977, went to Barut Primary School, Koilel Boys High School, Moi Secondary and Nakuru Blankets Secondary School – all in Nakuru County.

He later joined the National Police Service after sitting his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCPE) exams.

“We have searched for him in hospitals, police cells and prisons, but we have not been lucky as no one fitting his description has been booked into the facilities,” said Mr Moses Kipngetich Tonui, the former policeman’s younger brother.

Speaking to the Nation in Bomet, Mr Kipngetich, who is a medical oncologist at Tenwek Hospital, said they had also checked in morgues around Nakuru and other places for his body, but to no avail.

Ms Ruth Rono, an elder sister, said, “On the morning of the day he went missing, those who saw him said he was smartly dressed in a blue suit, which was unusual for him. But no one we know seems to have come into contact with him thereafter.”

Although a report was filed at the Nakuru Central Police Station a week after he disappeared, no one has come forward to say he or she had been in contact with the former policeman.

Mr Kibet is said to have worked for seven years in Moyale, before being transferred to Mwingi Police Station, where he is said to have had problems with his superiors before deserting duty.

His parents, Mzee John Kiptonui Rono and Rael Cheruto, have agonised for the past one decade on the fate of their fourth-born child.

The matter is taking a toll on the elderly couple that has been forced to take up the responsibility of bringing up the man’s two children who are now in secondary school.

The children’s mother is said to have abandoned them and returned to her ancestral home in Isiolo County two years before Mr Tonui’s disappearance.

“I once took him back to his workstation when he deserted duty, where he was put through a disciplinary process and resumed duties. But he later deserted duty again, leading to his dismissal from service towards the end of 2009,” said Mzee Rono, a 71-year-old former Kenya Power employee.

After deserting duty, he frequented busaa dens in the neighbourhood, where his mates said they saw him for the last time two days before he disappeared.

The family realised he was missing two days after failing to take his supper, which would be left behind for him in the family kitchen as he often returned home late from local illicit brew dens.

“It struck me that he had not taken his meals, which was very unusual and when we made inquiries, the people who saw him last said he was smartly dressed while his drinking mates maintained he did not go to the illicit brew den on the material day and has never been heard from to date,” said Mrs Rono, the man’s mother.

The family has searched for his body in the nearby Ndarugu river, in case he drowned as it was swollen at the time of his disappearance. But that too has not borne any fruits.

“We remain optimistic as a family that he is alive and will one day reappear or be found somewhere out there. That would set us free,” said Mrs Rono.

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