Investigate abduction claims, say the Saitotis - In2EastAfrica - East ...

The Saitoti family says the Subukia teacher who has sued them over alleged child theft is trying to profit from the former Vice-President?s death.

They want the police to investigate the man?s sensational claims and prosecute him if they are false.

This emerged Friday in a High Court application to temporarily stop a private prosecution that accuses Saitoti?s widow Margaret of hiding a stolen child for over two decades.

Zachary Musengi Saitoti, 29, and his mother released statements Friday through lawyer Fred Ngatia claiming accusations he was stolen from Nakuru two decades ago were inspired by an ulterior motive. In sworn affidavits set before a Nairobi court, they said they were no strangers to extortion and blackmail attempts, and death threats. Zachary and his mother dismissed as false claims by Subukia teacher Sebastian Maina Ngunju he was abducted in childhood.

Saitoti?s widow claims she and her late husband brought ?Zachary up ?since he was born? and adds that she had never met Ngunju or heard of him before July this year. She dismissed the teacher?s lawsuit as ?one of the most despicable, callous and vicious efforts to seek improper advantage from me and my family?.

The dispute arises from the unsolved 1988 disappearance of Stephen Wachira, Ngunju?s two-year-old son. The boy was allegedly abducted from the family home in the Kijabe Farm area of Subukia on August 31, 1988, three weeks to his third birthday. A neighbour, identified as Mary Wambui Kirubi, was arrested over the disappearance but later acquitted. Ngunju, a primary school teacher, and his wife Elizabeth Njeri, a nurse, have recently gone to court claiming Musengi is the missing boy. The couple, both in their 50s, sought leave to institute a private prosecution against Saitoti?s widow for allegedly concealing and confining an abducted or stolen person.

Musengi says he first heard from Ngunju and his wife through a firm of lawyers that wrote him on July 18, about a month after Prof Saitoti?s death. ?The letter ? which I concluded to be written on the instructions of fraudsters, pranksters or extremely insensitive people ? invited me to meet with people unknown to me in Subukia who were claiming to be my parents,? he said.

Musengi says he disregarded the letter since he and his family were used to getting strange and threatening correspondence. The matter was forgotten until media coverage of the lawsuit against his mother began.

Poor movie script

?The articles made reference to a court case filed in Nakuru by (Sebastian) Maina Ngunju in which he alleged he is my father,? he said. ?I have no doubt that the suit has been filed for an ulterior purpose (because it was) widely publicised even before either my mother or I were served with court papers.?

The documents, when they arrived, were ?like a poor movie script?, getting his mother?s name wrong (the papers named her as Mary) and attributing material allegations to ?unnamed or deceased persons?.

?There are no words that can express the deep sense of anger, distress and hurt that I felt upon reading the articles,? Musengi says. He outlines nine points on which Ngunju?s application fails, including conflicting birth dates, the acquittal of the prime suspect in Wachira?s disappearance and the reliability of his alleged identification, 24 years after the fact, on television.

?However deep a sense of loss (Ngunju) feels regarding his missing son, he has no right to visit such callousness and grief on other families as he has done to me and my son,? Saitoti?s widow says.

Ngunju says he recognised his ?long lost son? after seeing him on television and noting his resemblance to his four other children. This led him to pursue claims he dropped after Kirubi?s acquittal and alleged threats from unnamed people. On Wednesday, the Saitoti family released documents they claim prove Zachary Musengi is not Stephen Wachira, the Subukia family?s missing boy. The papers included copies of school records and a passport issued in 2005 that indicates his date of birth as September 8, 1983. Also released was a copy of Wachira?s birth certificate (No 2704921/85), indicating Ngunju as the father and a birth date of September 21, 1985. The document was part of the materials filed by Sebastian Ngunju as part of his case. The Saitoti family have not released Zachary?s birth certificate. Yesterday, they submitted a copy of Zachary?s national identity card to the High Court. Issued in 1990, it also dates his birth as September 8, 1983.

Photocopies of school records released by the Saitoti family include a letter dated December 1, 1986 offering ?Zachary? a place at the New Muthaiga Kindergarten. A receipt issued the same day shows Mrs Saitoti paid a registration fee of Sh300 for the slot in Green Class to be taken up in January 1987. Three other documents ? a report card, an admission letter and a leaving certificate ? track Zachary Saitoti?s progress through Westlands Kindergarten and Strathmore School. The report card, signed by class teacher Ethel Muganda, shows Zachary?s age as he left the school in November 1989 as six years and two months.

The Subukia teacher wants Saitoti?s widow charged with wrongfully keeping in confinement a kidnapped or abducted person contrary to Section 201 of the Penal Code. A proposed charge sheet prepared by the teacher?s lawyer has been lodged with the Nakuru court together with an application for orders to institute a private prosecution against Mrs Saitoti. The draft charge sheet states that on or about August 31, 1988, Margaret Saitoti unlawfully concealed and kept Stephen Wachira (allegedly Zachary Musengi) knowing that he had been abducted from his parents within Subukia District.

Zachary was educated at New Muthaiga and Westlands kindergartens, the Strathmore School and later Kenton College. He holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees in photography and graphic design from the University of the West of England, formerly Bristol Polytechnic, where he graduated in 2006. He lives and works in the United Kingdom, where he has since returned.

By ISAIAH LUCHELI and JOE KIARIE, The Standard

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