A businessman from Kiambu County is reported to have gone missing along Kenya-Somalia border, where he went to oversee the repairing of his broken vehicle.
The 60 years Josphat Mwangi Mbuthia, was last seen in Falama village, Ijara division Hullugho sub-County on 1st January this year according to the police.
Confirming the incident, Garissa County police commissioner Charles Kinyua said, the father of five children was reported missing at Masalani police station by people who were with him shortly before his disappearance.
The County police boss said "The businessman is reported to have gone missing at Falama area between Ijara and Hullugho sub-counties in Garissa. He was last seen by people with him, before noticing he was gone. The trader took a walk from where the two were to find a better network to make a call",
Kinyua said the man come to the area, after his truck which was hired to working for local construction company broke down and developed a mechanical problem which required spare parts which were not available in the area and more qualified mechanical to be brought from outside the area, which the old man brought them to the area to repair his vehicle",
He added "According to two mechanics that were last with him reported that the prominent trade walked away from them in search of a better Safaricom network coverage to make a call to his family, only to discover later he was missing after they look for him around after he took long time to rejoin them",
The County police boss said despite they can't rule out an act of criminality, they currently treating the matter as a case of a missing person until otherwise proved.
"The area where the man went missing is close to the Boni forest, where there were previous incidents of people been kidnapped or killed by Somali militiamen, but it is too early to speculate that at the moment", he noted.
Kinyua said a joint security officers were mobilized from both Hullugho and Ijara sub-counties to comb for the expansive forest on foot to trace for the missing man adding that the local community in settlements near the area was also helping the security personnel to find the victim.
"We suspect the man on the course of tracing for a network lost direction to where other people were and got lost. Areas in Ijara and Hullugho had never had any incident of terrorism acts where people were killed or kidnapped and if this incident turns so then it will be the first in its kind in this side of northeastern region' he explained.
The Kiambu county leaders of minority Cecelia Wamaitha Mwangi, the wife to the missing trader said, her husband called her last on the eve on the near year where he told her he was safely with the two mechanics hired from Kiambu to repair the truck.
The Gatuanyaga ward member of county assemble urge the government to mobile more security personnel and used aerial search to find her husband noting that she is concerned he might fell victim to marauding Somali militiamen, Al-Shabaab who has previously carried deadly attacks in the neigbouring Lamu County.
"I'm here in Masalani town since Tuesday with my eldest son searching and other relatives coordinating the search of my missing husband. I'm impressed the support from the local community who offered voluntarily to join us in finding my husband, but I demand more from the government" She said.
The Kiambu county assembly minority leader said "My husband told me he slept in the truck with two mechanics overnight before he was reported missing by the two the following day at around 4 pm, while looking a place with better network connection",
Falama area is remote village in Ijara division some kilometers from the Boni forest and has no network coverage and the local people has to wander some distance into a nearby forest to get a stray network from Ijara town to make and receive calls.
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