Spare her, teacher’s granny pleads with Hagadera kidnappers

Alice Mukomwe Munyao, 80, the grandmother of Ms Judy Mukomwe Mutua, the teacher who was kidnapped at the Hagadera Refugee camp in Garissa on Monday, is thoroughly gutted.

Yesterday, we found her outside her house in Kateve Village, about five kilometres from Machakos town.

Ms Munyao, whose kidnapped granddaughter is named for her, searched our faces, perhaps wondering whether we had come to break bad news.

“I did not sleep last night when my son came from Nairobi and told me Mukomwe had been taken captive,” she said after we were done with niceties.

Mr Mutua Munyao, the teacher’s father, works and lives in Kitui.

CONFUSED

“I am here alone and confused. I don’t know what to do. I was close with my granddaughter. The last time we talked she said she would bring along my three-year-old great grandson,” said a distraught Ms Munyao.

She said her granddaughter had taught at Muthale Secondary School in Kitui after graduating from university. She didn’t know how the teacher ended up in northeastern Kenya.

“Will they harm her?” she wondered.

“I want to appeal to whoever is holding my granddaughter not to harm her but set her free. She has not wronged anyone,” pleaded Ms Munyao.

The Nation also spoke to Mr Munyao by phone. He said the Hagadera police boss had called him and assured him investigations were under way.

In Dadaab, police intensified the search for the teacher, who worked with Windle Trust.

Dadaab OCPD Raphael Kimilu said police were looking for the kidnappers, who had abandoned their vehicle a few kilometres from the camp, before heading towards the Somali border on foot with their hostage.

Ms Mutua was kidnapped when the vehicle carrying her was waylaid between the Hagadera and Dadaab camps.