Romario Koinet Ntuala, 25,who disappeared from their home in Ololulung'a,in Narok County on December 7, 2024 after he visited a nearby shop to buy tea leaves and other household items.
When Romario Koinet Ntuala, 25, left his parents’ home in Ololulung'a, Narok County, on December 7, 2024, to buy tea leaves and other household items at a nearby shop, his family did not know that they would soon be looking for him as a missing person.
His mother, Josephine Ntuala, had little to worry about because after all her son was a disciplined young man who rarely wronged people.
Little did she know it was the last time she was seeing him.
Romario, who was wearing a black jumper and a blue jeans trousers, went for the errand but he never returned home.
The hospitality student at a local college has been missing for nearly two months now and his whereabouts have never been traced.
For nearly two months now, his family has been on a desperate search for their kin and their life has been an unending cycle of hope and despair.
Romario's disappearance has left his family grappling with unanswered questions, wondering if they will ever see their kin again.
Days of intense searching in police stations and towns have turned into months of daily nightmares and the family has even shifted the search to the last places they dread most— the mortuaries.
"At the time he went missing, on December 7, 2024, he had just celebrated his good performance in his hospitality studies," Ntuala told the Nation.
"As a family, we have searched for him everywhere including in mortuaries with the hope that we will find my son but he is nowhere to be seen.”
His family reported the matter at the Ololulung'a Police Station but little progress has been made in tracing him.
"He was reported as a missing person and since then we have been making efforts to trace his whereabouts through phone data. His phone was switched off hours after he went missing," revealed a detective privy to the matter.
"We are doing everything possible to trace his whereabouts.”
The disappearance has left the family in distress and they are appealing to the public for any information that could help trace him.
"We are extremely worried and urge anyone who may have seen him or knows his whereabouts to contact us or report to the nearest police station," his sister Edith Ntuala said.
"We have been living in agony since he went missing. Efforts to trace him have bore no fruits.”
Two weeks ago, the family was thrown into double agony.
Romario's father, Reuben Ntuala, who had been sick, passed on and the family has since been forced to suspend the burial hoping that the firstborn son in the family will show up to bury the father.
"My father's funeral arrangement has been suspended. According to the Maasai Community traditions, the firstborn son should be present before the father is buried. It has been two weeks since our father passed on," said Edith.
Romario's trail has since gone cold, forcing the family to suspend the burial of his father against the community norms.
According to a neighbour, Cecilia Siamanta, Romario was a humble and hardworking young man whose future was bright.
"Romario has been a humble and hardworking person. He has been a good role model even to his cousins and other siblings. We still have hope that he will be traced to come home and bury his father," said Siamanta.
Every single ring on his mother Josephine Ntuala's phone elicits a mixture of anticipatory and dreadful emotions.
She hopes for a call bearing the good news about the whereabouts of her son, from whom she has not heard for nearly two months now.
Even as investigators intensify their search for Romario, the devastated family is now hoping to find their kin alive.
