A Kenyan woman has shared a heartbreaking account of how her young son disappeared nearly three decades ago, leaving her with unanswered questions and a lifetime of pain.
In an emotional Facebook post, Jayne Wangare narrated how a normal work shift in 1998 turned into a tragedy that changed her life forever.
According to Jayne, the incident happened in December 1998 when she was working night shifts at a time when businesses, including casinos, had begun operating around the clock.
On the evening before leaving for work, she had stopped by her mother’s home and collected supplies for her house, confident that everything was in order.
She had left her baby, Michael, under the care of a newly hired house help named Karimi. The maid appeared friendly and seemed to get along well with the child, which made Jayne feel comfortable leaving for work.
However, events took a shocking turn after her shift ended.
“When I finished work, I was told I had a visitor downstairs. It was my boyfriend then, who was a policeman. He told me police were looking for me because they had received a report that I had neglected my child,” she recalled.
Confused, Jayne insisted she had left her son safely at home with the house help and enough food. The officer escorted her to the police station where she was questioned but not arrested because he confirmed she had indeed left for work responsibly.
When the two went back to her house hoping to understand what had happened, they found it completely empty.
“The girl had taken everything. My clothes, the baby’s clothes, the food, utensils, even the basins and buckets. The house was empty except for an old rusted stove,” Jayne said.
Neighbours told her the house help had disappeared overnight.
Her nightmare deepened when police informed her that a child believed to be hers had been taken to a children’s home in Huruma. But when she followed up, the information kept changing.
She was first told the child had been taken to a hospital, then later informed that the baby had died. Yet hospital records showed no such child had been admitted.
Jayne and her boyfriend even searched the City Mortuary, where dozens of infant bodies were kept, but none matched her son.
Weeks later, a nun at the children’s home handed her a document labelled “Death Report”, claiming the child had died and been cremated. But an elderly worker at the same facility quietly told her a different story.
“She whispered to me that my son had not died. She said he was given to someone who donated KSh50,000 to the home,” Jayne wrote.
A year later, a tip led them to a home in Kiserian where a young boy believed to be Michael was spotted, but the family living there never opened their gate.
Nearly three decades later, Jayne says she has never stopped searching for her son and hopes that sharing her story on social media might finally lead to answers.