Bittersweet Moment for Family After Receiving Huduma Card of Kin Missing for 45 Years

A family in Mwingi, Kitui County is in shock after the area chief delivered to them the Huduma Namba card for their kin who has been missing for over 45 years.

Imba Chief John Mbiti issued the Huduma card of Benjamin Malii Livu which has his details and picture matching his current age. This is despite him not being around his family for over 40 years.

The family has since embarked on a search to locate their missing kin.

The Huduma card has renewed our hope of reuniting with our elder brother Benjamin. It is the clearest signal that he could still be alive. At least he was alive a year ago when the government rolled out the first phase of the Huduma Namba registration. He must have registered somewhere and provided details of his village," his younger sister Kamene Katunduma told the Sunday Nation on May 23, 2021.

Kamene, 69, a farmer in Kitui, have been living with the hope that their kin returns to them one day. The Huduma Card now presents them with an opportunity to locate Benjamin.

The publication reported that details on the card indicate that the man identified as Benjamin Malii was born 64 years ago in Mwingi, but his sister, stated that he should be 70 years now.

The card was issued on March 3, 2021, in Nairobi.

Malii left his Ivuusya village home in Mwingi Sub-County in 1974 at the prime of his youth. 

His family grew more concerned about his whereabouts after he failed to attend the burial of their mother in 2014.

"I saw Malii last in April 1974, at the Kindaruma dam site where he worked alongside my brother in-law Mumo Musyoka and Malula Tonde, his relative. He was a good man who spoke calmly and had big plans. For instance, he had planned to return home four months later, build a homestead and marry. This did not happen.

"It is said he picked his small bag and left quietly, leaving the door to his rented house open," Kamene narrated.

Malii's former classmate Mwangangi Mbuthia stated that he was truant in school and might have bailed out on his family after their father died.

His family had almost given up on him until his Huduma card showed up.

Kamene believes that his brother settled somewhere in Machakos or Embu.