A 12-year-old girl who was abducted from the Kamkunji area in Nairobi on Sunday, January 21, has been found alive.
Joy Muthoni was found around Kyangulu Hills in Kitui county on Friday and the suspect who abducted her has been arrested.
Following reports of her abduction, Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko offered Sh300,000 for anyone who would help him and DCI trace the young girl.
"We received a call from a source in Kyangulu Hills in Kitui and we headed there with DCI officers from Nairobi during which we were led to where the girl was," the former governor said in an address to the media on Friday after Joy was found.
The girl's father James Mwangi says they were called after a neighbour of a household where Joy was staying in Kitui questioned her why she was not going to school.
It was then that Joy shared her mother's phone number with the woman who called her parents.
"The woman asked Joy why she was not in school and Joy responded by saying the place was not her home. The woman asked her for our phone number and my wife was called. We spoke to Joy over the phone," Mwangi said.
"We had to interrogate her. We asked her the name of the father and mother to establish if indeed she was our child. She got it all right and we organised our travel here to recover her," Mwangi said.
He said the suspect, whom they had an opportunity to meet on Friday, is still a stranger to them.
"We don't know her but we heard where she took Joy was her ancestral home," Mwangi said.
Mwangi said the child is in a good state but they will be taking her to the hospital for a check-up.
Joy's mother Nancy Wanjiru on her part thanked all who put in effort to help her find her child.
Sonko thanked the DCI officers and Nairobi regional security heads for intervening in the matter.
"Our sincere compliments go to DCI boss Mohamed Amin and the entire DCI teams both from Kamkunji and Nairobi Regional headquarters not forgetting police officers from Tulia police station led by the OCS Nzuki," he said.
Sonko who had posted the story of the missing girl on social media asked parents to be vigilant to avert such cases.
"We are urging other parents to be careful because whatever has happened to Joy can happen to any other child anywhere in the country," Sonko said.
CCTV footage from the building Joy was abducted from showed the woman walking into the apartment building and knocked several doors before she got to the house Joy was in.
The woman claimed she was in search of a job.
A while later, CCTV footage showed her walking out of the house with Joy by her side.
Joy is a Grade 8 learner.
