Man who ran away from harsh dad returns after 47 years

It was celebration galore for a family in Kithetu Village, Igembe South in Meru County after their relative who had been missing for 47 years returned home.

Relatives and villagers came together for a feast as tears of joy flowed freely to welcome Mr John M’Ikiome who disappeared in 1969.

Mr M’Ikiome remembered clearly when and why he decided to disappear from his father’s home without even informing anyone.

He says he had a good relationship with his siblings but his father was too harsh to him especially when he got drunk.

“My father was the cause of my disappearance. He hated me and used to beat me every time he got drunk. I had attempted to revenge by killing him but I opted to leave home.”

“I left home aged 28 years and headed to Nanyuki where I stayed for some time without any job. Later, I got used to the town and became a matatu conductor plying the Nanyuki-Nyeri route,” he said.

Mr M’Ikiome said he lost the matatu job after two years and started doing odd jobs to survive.

One day, luck came his way when he met with someone who wanted a young man to look after his goats in Laikipia.

LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS

“Life in the wilderness was not easy at all since I had to stay alert. You may never know when rustlers will attack you, and at the same time you don’t know when a lion, elephant, buffalo and other dangerous animals will strike,” he recounted.

His brother said they were spending sleepless nights in the first years of his disappearance but they later lost hope of ever finding him.

“Together with our late father, we tried to look for him but we were not successful. We believed he must have died,” Mr Joseph Nchooro said.

The family recently received information that their kin had been spotted somewhere in Laikipia.

Nchooro contacted the person who gave them the information and he connected him with his brother.

“There was a song about reunion with family members that kept playing on radio and I felt that it was addressing me. When my brother and other people from home came for me, I was psychologically prepared to go back home,” said Mr M’Ikiome.

He said he did not regret leaving home as he did not want to be the cause of his father’s death.

Before his father died, he had left instructions that the missing son gets his rightful share of family property if he ever came back.

“I will give him the parcel of land that our father left for him. He will be the one to decide what to do with his property,” Mr Nchooro said.