The Son Is Ours!

“However deep a sense of loss (Ngunju) feels regarding his missing son, he has no right to visit such callousness and grief on other families as he has done to me and my son,” These were the fighting words of the late professor George Saitoti’s widow Margret last week after a couple in Subukia made claims that would have undoubtedly made her late husband  roll over and cringe in shock and possibly anger and disbelief... that his only son Zachary Musengi was in fact their long lost- kidnapped- son Stephen Wachira  who was taken from their Nakuru home in 1988.

 This all began when Maina  recognized the person he claims as his son- Zach- when he saw Professor Saitoti’s funeral on June 15. Maina says he recognized him because: ‘He resembles my children.’

With that the couple: teacher Sebastian Maina Ngunju and his wife Elizabeth Njeri both 55 did what many now do; they took their claim to the courts- with time this is becoming the Kenyan thing to do if one has a discrepancy or dispute-which then led to the serving of papers to Margret the late Professors wife and thus commenced the dragging of their name into court in what the professors lawyers claimed was a scheme to diverge attention from the ongoing inquiry case into the Mathematicians death on June 10 this year.  

The largely private family were then forced to produce evidence to counter the couple’s inflammatory claims; amongst their evidence was Zachary's passport that proves that he is two years older than the kidnapped boy whose family are still searching and hoping for the safe return of their son.

In a case such as this I am compelled to be a fence sitting bleeding heart for both parties. Firstly for Mr. Maina and his wife who continue to search for their third born, simply because nothing could compare to having a child taken from your home and secondly for Margret and Zachary who are not only dealing with the loss of a father and husband but also now having to fend off accusations of kidnapping and having their lives and names splashed on the front pages and on TV then having to justify and defend themselves. That must be hard and either way this story is dissected and looked at both Zach, his mother and the Subukia couple lose out.