Pupils abducted in Mombasa to undergo psychiatric tests

Rise and Shine Academy in Mombasa from where three pupils were allegedly abducted by a bodaboda rider. Their parents now say the girls will undergo mental assessment after they started speaking incomprehensibly. PHOTO | WACHIRA MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • A parent said the minors and their kin are currently at Coast General Hospital awaiting the mental tests.
  • The 14-year-olds were allegedly abducted by the rider from their school in Nyali.
  • The suspected abductor is set to be arraigned Monday.

Three pupils who were allegedly abducted by a bodaboda rider from Rise and Shine Academy, a mixed boarding primary school in Nyali, Mombasa County are set to undergo a psychiatric assessment.

This is after the Class Eight pupils started speaking incomprehensibly.

A parent of one of the girls said the minors and their kin are currently at Coast General Hospital awaiting the mental tests.

"We are in the public hospital for further tests. On Saturday they were brought in to be examined to establish whether they were sexually abused and we are still waiting for the results. But today they will undergo psychiatric evaluation because they were speaking incomprehensibly...we cannot not understand what they are saying," a parent of one of the minors said.

ABDUCTED

The 14-year-olds were allegedly abducted by the rider from their school in Nyali.

The girls, two boarders who are cousins and a day scholar, were allegedly taken from the school while in uniform on Wednesday last week and taken to a house in Kwa Bulo, an insecure slum in Nyali where crimes thrive.

But their headteacher claimed that the minors sneaked out of school.

SNEAKED OUT

”They just sneaked out while the watchmen was guarding this institution. I reported the matter to the relevant authorities who are handling it. I am also surprised because they are among the brightest pupils. Pupils are not allowed to have mobile phones,” insisted the headteacher when interviewed by Nation.

However, friends of the girls contradicted their headteacher’s version of the story saying their three colleagues asked the watchman to allow them to go and buy viazi karai (deep fried potatoes) from a nearby kiosk.

“Two days later, we were told the three had sneaked out. We were surprised,” a Class Eight pupil and a friend of the girls revealed.

REFUTES CLAIM

The abduction suspect, Mr Wilson Katana, 21, also refuted the headteacher’s and parents’ claims saying the girls walked out of the school willingly.

“I did not abduct them, they called me to pick them from school on Wednesday evening and I ferried them to my house. The three girls and others form the institution are my friends and frequent customers,” he told Kisauni sub county police boss Christopher Limo during an interrogation.

The girls were found on Saturday bodaboda riders in Mavueni, Kilifi County.

They later surrendered to Kilifi Police Station.

During the interrogation at Dog Section Kisauni Police Station, the minors claimed that the bodaboda rider was hosting them and he brought for them a boyfriend each.

The suspected abductor is set to be arraigned Monday.