Ransom bid off as body found

The decomposing body of the nine-year-old daughter of a Kenyan magistrate has been recovered, showing signs of torture after she was kidnapped and a ransom demanded for her release.

The body of the girl, the daughter of Githongo Law Courts Senior Resident Magistrate Carol Kemei, was found at the weekend near Meru in eastern Kenya with cuts on her thighs and an arm burned by acid, the Daily Nation reported yesterday.

The child went missing on September 6 after she had been dropped off by her school bus. Shortly afterwards, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Sh500 000 (about R74 000) but never followed up on their demand.

The girl’s body was discovered, still in her school uniform, by locals visiting a giant Meru oak, a popular tourist attraction close to Meru town.

Preliminary police reports state that the girl was picked up by a man known to her near a petrol station on the Meru town-Makutano road. The man called to her and she rushed to him shouting “habari uncle”. Hence, her peers and those in nearby shops did not suspect anything sinister. – ANA