“I no longer know what to tell my children who keep asking where their dad is. They miss him very much,” she added.

As she spoke, her daughter, Wanjiku, stood by, unable to comperehend the cruelty that forced her father out of their home.

Fighting escalated

Muthoni is among many people in Mathira and parts of Kirinyaga still looking for their loved ones who disappeared from the villages at the height of the mungiki-vigilante wars.

It is estimated that more than 100 people died in the hands of mungiki and vigilantes. Residents in both districts, who wished not to be named, said they estimate up to 60 people are missing.

As the fighting escalated, scores of youth fled from home, never to be seen again. Some were accused of being mungiki gang members, while others just fled the chaos.

A mother of two, Muthoni said the last time she saw her husband was on April 27 last year. He left home that day, saying he was going to work.

Three days after his disappearance, armed members of the vigilante group knocked at their door at night, asking her to reveal his whereabouts. He was lucky to have escaped.

When she told them she did not know where he had gone, they ordered her to pack her clothes and walk out of the house.

They then doused it with petrol and set it ablaze. Scores of other families underwent the same trauma as the gangs went from village to village, setting houses alight. Many other youth were killed in the most inhuman methods. Some were hanged, others set on fire, while others were bludgeoned to death.

Across the homestead, another house is deserted as its owner, Samuel Muhindi, also disappeared last year.

He is the son of Mary Wanjiku, Muthoni’s mother-in-law. Wanjiku is unable to cope with the disappearance of her two sons.

“Their father suffers from diabetes, and I’m growing weak by the day. What keeps us going is the hope that they are still alive and they will show up one day,” says Wanjiku.

In Kirinyaga, residents told The Standard many youth from Kagumo and Keruguya towns have not returned. Kagumo was worst hit by the violence.

Vigilantes operated a kangaroo court they had named The Hague, in reference to International Criminal Court’s base. Other affected villages are Waigiri, Kaitheri, Kiaritha and Ithare-ini.

However, there are fears that some residents are not willing to forget the past and may not allow the youth to return. When the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission officials visited Keruguya two weeks ago, they met a hostile reception. Led by chairman Bethwel Kiplagat, they were chased out of a local church where they were consulting local leaders on how to reconcile the community.

Scores of boda boda operators stormed the church, prompting security men to whisk Kiplagat out to safety.

Kirinyaga Central OCPD Mr Patrick Oduma said due to the differences between vigilantes and mungiki, Kagumo town is a “high security” area.

The operators, who are mainly young men, accused Kiplagat’s team of backing mungiki.

“I was surprised that they came without informing us,” said Oduma.

In Mukure village in Kirinyaga, Jecinta Mugure is also longing for the day her son, Peter Munene, will return home.

Munene, 26, left the village a day after the infamous massacre. A friend allegedly informed him that vigilantes were looking for him.

She tells of the anguish of living alone, since Munene was his only companion at home. Her greatest fear is that her son may never return home.

Assimilate them

“It would be much better if I knew that he is dead and I had a chance to bury him. That way I would be at peace and would not have to wait every day for him his return,” said Mugure.

Iria-ini Location Chief Mr George Githae said seven men who fled the mayhem have never returned. However, the Government is trying to assimilate them back into society by offering them jobs.

They are benefiting from the Kazi kwa Vijana programme, a Government project that offers jobs to youth.

In Ihwagi village, one of the men who had fled, Mr Martin Kinyua, urged others to return home.

“Some of us have even joined the church,” said Kinyua.