A police car. Police in Molo are looking for a school girl who went missing. Photo/courtesy
Police have called on anyone with information that can trace 17-year-old Sylvia Wanjiru who went missing to report to the nearest police station.
Wanjiru's family in Molo claim the girl went missing after her teachers at a local school punished her.
She has been missing for three weeks.
Her mother, Ms Beth Wairimu said she last saw her daughter on July 17 when she was preparing herself for school in the morning.
“When I came back home that day at around 7pm, her siblings told me Wanjiru had not returned from school. I dropped the bag I was carrying and embarked on a frantic search,” Ms Wairimu said.
She said she looked for her with the help of her neighbors and friends to no avail.
“One of my neighbors said she had seen her in town at the stage. I went to look for her on foot thinking she might be sheltering herself from the rain at the stage since it was drizzling. We did not find her,”she recalled.Wanjiru was a form three student at Tayari Secondary school, in Molo.
Reports indicated the girl had been pretending to attend school every morning and reporting back in the evening like other students.
“I do not understand why the teachers did not inform us that our daughter was not going to school. We would have arrested the situation before it got here,” a troubled Ms Wairimu said.
She said trouble started when her daughter was punished for missing school on a Saturday after she fell ill.
“When she went to school the following Monday, her name was read out in the parade together with others who had not turned up for extra classes. Afterwards she was sent to the school shamba to dig as punishment,” she said.
According to the class register, it was the four days that followed this incidence that Wanjiru did not go to school, despite dressing in her uniform every morning.
While looking for clues in their home, Ms Wairimu said she noticed three of Wanjiru’s dresses were missing.
A few days ago, Ms Wairimu said she found two letters written by Wanjiru that outlined her long term suffering at the school, and her need to drop out of school.
In one of the letters availed , Wanjiru wrote how her Mathematics teacher was irritating her and did not want to see her in class.
One letter read: “Kama ni boarding sawa. Shule si lazima…Nitatafuta jobhata nisiposoma(If it is a boarding school it is okay. It is not a must that I go to school…I will look for a job even if I don’t go to school)”
However, the principal of the school ,Ms Christine Ojera said the complaints had not reached her neither were the teachers aware of Wanjiru’s troubles.
“The days she did not report to school coincided with a period where other students were sent home for lack of clearing their school fees. Her absence therefore did not raise eyebrows,” she said.
Ms Ojera said the school, together with the office of the Molo sub county education director were pursuing leads trying to locate the student.
“It is not time to apportion blame. We all want the girl to be found and if the parents cooperate, we would all help to look for her,” she noted.
Her father, Mr Ephantus Muriuki said he believed his daughter must have been troubled for her to decide to run away from home.