Where is baby Mary Njeri? Pipeline resident plan demonstrations as search for missing baby enters third week

As the search for Baby Mary Njeri Ng'ang'a enters its third week, family members and residents have announced plans for a peaceful march to Nakuru Central Police Station on Saturday, demanding answers over her disappearance.

The organizers say they will gather at Wakaba Centre before marching to the station, insisting they are still waiting for action despite claims that a suspect in custody had provided information that could aid the investigation.

The demonstration comes more than two weeks after the four-year-old disappeared from their Pipeline Estate home in Nakuru on the evening of June 11, with the family saying they have yet to receive answers on her whereabouts.

Recounting the moments before his daughter disappeared, Antony Ng’ang’a says he had just returned home from work on the said evening and was relaxing in the sitting room as his wife prepared supper.

He says Baby Njeri asked to step outside to play while she waited for her older brother, who had been sent to a nearby shop.

According to Ng’ang’a, when his son came back, he instructed him not to lock the gate when he returned because Njeri was still playing just outside the house.

A short while later, when he went looking for her, he realized the four-year-old was nowhere to be seen, alerting his parents, who asked him to look at the neighbors, but he saw nothing.

Ng’ang’a says they alerted the neighbors, who then informed them that they had spotted a man believed to be casually working around the area at about 6.30 p.m., appearing to observe the neighborhood before Njeri disappeared.

As the search continued into the night, he adds that another resident reported seeing the man in the company of a woman who appeared to be carrying a child on her back at around 6.30 p.m.

“We traced the woman, but she denied carrying a child, insisting she had only been carrying a bag. To de-escalate the issue, we called the police, who later arrested both the woman and the suspect's wife as investigations began,” he tells Mtaa Wangu.

According to Ng’ang’a, investigators recovered some of his daughter's belongings together with a mobile phone from a room linked to the suspect, adding that the phone was later taken by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

He further claims someone sent him a text message the day after Baby Njeri disappeared, asking, “Do you want your baby back?”, alleging that the suspect sent messages to his own wife, prompting investigators to examine the phone.

“The DCI took the phone and found it was registered in his wife's name, yet she’d claimed she barely knew him,” Ng’ang’a says.

He adds that while the woman and the suspect's wife remain in police custody, the family continues to wait for information about the progress of the investigations.

Ng’ang’a also claims the main suspect later escaped while detectives were searching for him, allegedly fleeing through neighboring plots before disappearing.

He says witnesses later informed investigators that although the suspect travelled on the night of June 11, they did not see him leave with the child.

“People who saw him said he travelled that night without the child. We are left wondering whether he abandoned her somewhere or handed her over to someone else,” Ng’ang’a says.

The distraught father recalls that Baby Njeri was wearing a brown hooded jacket over a red top, blue leggings, and green Crocs when she disappeared.

Since then, Ng’ang’a says the family has searched extensively across Pipeline and neighboring areas and is now working with detectives to widen the search to children's homes across Nakuru County.

He also calls on members of the public with any information that could help trace his daughter to come forward and report it to the police, saying the family remains hopeful she will be found alive.