This archive report was first published on 5 November 2021.
On November 5, 2021, a search party in Nyeri discovered the body of a 5-year-old kindergarten girl who had gone missing on her way home from school.
The girl, identified as Blessing Gathigia, was from Mathira's Kianjogu village and had been reported missing by her mother, Damaris Wairimu, after she failed to return home.
According to police, Blessing was raped and murdered before her body was dumped at a house in the neighborhood.
Speaking to the police, Blessing's mother said that she had last seen her daughter at 3 pm when she came home from school and changed her uniform before walking out of the house.
'My daughter came from school as usual after changing her uniform she proceeded for a walk. This is the time she vanished,' said Wairimu.
Police from Karatina opened an investigation into the murder, and the girl's body was taken to a Karatina Hospital Mortuary for a postmortem to establish the cause of death.
