A liberal mind. An observer of society and commentator. My pen/keyboard liberates my thoughts from the prison of the brain. A poet and short story writer.
@USForeignAssist@Tolah_tolah It is by citizens. Keep sick Americans either where they got it or ship them to your country. Kenya has never encountered Ebola. Why are you bringing the disease into our country.
A 16 year old girl vanished from one of the most guarded girls schools in Kenya and the people running that institution are behaving like we are disturbing their peace by asking questions.
Read that again slowly.
A WHOLE CHILD disappeared.
Not outside a nightclub.
Not in a forest.
Not during chaos.
Inside a boarding school.
Inside St. Francis Mangu Girls in Kiambu County.
And what is shocking is not just the disappearance of Grace Wangare Thini.
It is the coldness.
The silence.
The arrogance.
The complete absence of urgency from people entrusted with children.
Grace disappeared on 10th April 2025.
The school only realised she was missing the following day after a teacher attending the third lesson noticed she was absent from class.
Meaning for hours nobody knew where she was.
Nobody checked.
Nobody panicked.
Nobody cared enough to immediately raise alarm.
This is a Form Four student living under school control, not an adult renting her own apartment in Nairobi.
So how does a child disappear from a highly secured boarding school without answers?
Today together with Maina Magret and Amos Koech we went to that school seeking one thing only:
Truth.
But what we found was walls.
The principal refused to face us.
The secretary redirected us like we were beggars asking for favours instead of citizens demanding accountability for a missing child.
Then came the deputy principal Mrs Gitonga in charge of curriculum.
The attitude alone told a story.
Arrogant.
Dismissive.
Defensive.
The kind of behaviour public officials display when they know something is wrong but believe ordinary Kenyans are too powerless to push further.
Simple questions became a problem.
Who last saw Grace?
Which teacher was on duty?
Which gate did she pass?
Was CCTV reviewed?
Were students questioned immediately?
Did she leave alone?
Was she assisted?
Why the delay in informing the parents?
No straight answers.
Only referrals.
Excuses.
Bureaucratic games.
They referred us to the Sub County Education Director over 40 kilometres away as if this is a paperwork issue and not a missing child crisis.
Meanwhile Grace’s parents are dying slowly.
Her father Mr Thini is battling hypertension from stress and emotional torture.
Her mother Eunice Wairimu is surviving on tears, prayers and hope.
Every day they travel from Naivasha near Wanyua Junction searching for answers no parent should ever beg for.
Imagine waking up every morning not knowing whether your daughter is alive, injured, kidnapped or dead.
Then imagine the institution responsible for her safety treating you like an inconvenience.
That is the cruelty this family is facing.
And Kenyans must stop normalising this madness.
A school cannot lose a child then hide behind offices and titles.
This country has become dangerously comfortable with institutional silence.
When poor families cry, powerful offices close ranks.
When children disappear, systems protect reputations first before human life.
That is why this case must not die.
The DCI, Ministry of Education, Child Protection agencies and every security organ in Kenya must move with speed and seriousness.
Because Grace Wangare Thini is not just another name.
She is somebody’s daughter.
And tonight somewhere in Kenya, two parents are staring at a silent phone praying it rings with news that their child is still alive.
Part 3…………..
You say almost nothing.
Silence is easier for them to misread than argument. They take your quiet for weakness, exactly as cruel people always do. By the time the front door slams open an hour later and Damián walks in smelling like alcohol, cheap cologne, and entitlement, the house has already given you more information than any confession could have.
He is taller than you pictured.
Not because Lidia described him as imposing, but because fear tends to enlarge the people who hurt us. In person, yaas he is just a man with broad shoulders gone soft around the edges, bloodshot eyes, and a face that still wears enough charm to fool strangers for the length of a dinner. He kisses Sofi on the head without really looking at her, then glances at you…………
Part two ………..
When you step out of San Gabriel and the metal gate closes behind you, the sun feels violent.
For ten years, light arrived to you filtered through bars, dusty windows, and the kind of routines meant to keep difficult people from becoming dangerous. Out here, it hits your face whole. You stand on the sidewalk in Lidia’s shoes, with her purse over your shoulder and her fear still warm inside the fabric of her blouse, and realize freedom does not feel soft at all………
MY TWIN SISTER WAS BEATEN BY HER HUSBAND FOR YEARS… SO WE SWITCHED PLACES, AND HE HAD NO IDEA THE WOMAN WHO CAME HOME THAT NIGHT WASN’T THE ONE HE BROKE
My name is Nayeli Cardenas.
My twin sister’s name is Lidia.
We were born looking exactly alike, but life split us into two completely different worlds.
For ten years, I lived behind locked doors at San Gabriel Psychiatric Hospital outside Toluca.
For those same ten years, Lidia tried to build a normal life with a man who was quietly destroying her……..