Nairobi — Three Nigerians linked to the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl were arrested in Nairobi’s Ruaka Monday as the search intensified.
The three were arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after parents of the schoolgirl reported that she had been missing from their Ruaka home for several days.
“The trio Morah Stanley Apple, Boniface Nnamdi Nkachukwulu and Godwin Ovoepeke all Nigerian Nationals were arrested at Courtyard apartment, within Ruaka township,” the DCI said in a statement posted on Twitter.
DCI boss George Kinoti said “The minor’s distraught parents have been looking for their daughter in vain, only to realize that she had on various occasions been lured to the apartment where the three men reside.”
Neighbours also reported that they saw the minor in the company of the three on diverse dates during the festive season.
Also arrested is a 20-year-old Kenyan said to be an accomplice.
“Detectives are still looking for the minor, who was not in the house at the time the arrests were made,” said the DCI in a statement.
There has been an upsurge of cases of school children disappearing since March when learning institutions were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, detectives in Nyali said they had reunited a family with their five-year-old grandson who had been kidnapped. A suspect was placed in custody.
Schools reopened in Kenya Monday after closure in March 2020 when the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the country but they were reopened partially in October 2020 for Form 4, Class 8 candidates and Grade 4.