Police probe abduction as search for missing couple continues

Dennis Kirimi and Yvonne Mwenda who vanished in September 2016 when hiking in Mt Kenya. PHOTO | CORRESPONDENT | NATION

What you need to know:

  • A note left by the couple initially led detectives to conclude that the two were on a suicide mission.
  • So far, authorities are yet to trace the two or their bodies, a situation they say is unusual, especially for people on a mission to kill themselves.

A couple that went missing three months ago when hiking in Mt Kenya Forest is yet to be found.

A team from the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations has combed the forest in search of Mr Dennis Kirimi, 22, a musician and his girlfriend Yvonne Mwenda, 21, a student at Kirinyaga Technical University.

They vanished on September 30. A note left by the couple initially led detectives to conclude that the two were on a suicide mission.

However, more than 12 weeks without any conclusive findings has led authorities to look into the possibility that the pair was not suicidal.

So far, authorities are yet to trace the two or their bodies, a situation they say is unusual, especially for people on a mission to kill themselves.

Senior KWS Warden Simon Gitau on Sunday described the disappearance as unusual, adding that the two seem to have made efforts not to be found.

“It is a mysterious and unusual case because there is no trace of them in the forest,” Mr Gitau said.

The warden, however, added that it was likely Mr Kirimi and Ms Mwenda had left the forest and could have killed themselves elsewhere.

“We cannot make a firm declaration on their whereabouts but they may not be in the forest. There was a similar case years ago when a person disappeared in the woodland only to be found alive in Mombasa,” Mr Gitau added.

The point where their last signal was tracked has good mobile network coverage, meaning Mr Kirimi and Ms Mwenda switched off their phones intentionally.

LOOKED HAPPY

A suicide note found in Ms Mwenda’s closet has also been the subject of debate, with her mother and close friend saying the handwriting was hot hers.
The note was addressed to the couple’s parents.

It said Mr Kirimi and Ms Mwenda were going to a better place and that nobody should bother looking for them.

“I know my daughter’s handwriting. Even if it is her message, she’s not the one who wrote it,” Ms Mwenda’s mother said in a previous interview with the Nation.

She said her daughter called her on September 30, the day the couple was last seen, “but sounded like she was being gagged”.

However, a taxi driver said the two looked happy and even instructed him to wait for them at St Moses’ Camp.

According to Mr Livingstone Kirimi, his son told him he was going to Chuka to shoot a video but would pass through Kerugoya where he and Ms Mwenda shared an apartment.

The couple’s parents said they were not aware the musician and the student were dating though they were childhood friends.

Ms Mwenda’s friend told the Nation that the two had been in a relationship but split for a while. She added that Ms Mwenda and Mr Kirimi had reconciled.