August 17, 2015
A family in Murang’a county has urged the government to help them recover Sh2.8 million raised to seek treatment for their sick child. The money was allegedly stolen by an NGO.
Kenneth Kinuthia from Sabasaba in
Muranga South said his daughter who
was born with frontal bone defect known as frontal Encephalocele and was scheduled to travel to Canada today for a free reconstructive surgery.
He said Fidelis Muthoni, 15 months, requires urgent treatment since her sickness distorts her face as she grows older.
Kinuthia said the family’s met a team of doctors from Canada who offered to treat her.
He said the docors asked the family to
raise the air ticket money.
Kinuthia said the family immediately
started raising funds to beat the two months they had been given by the
doctors.
“It was an uphill task to raise air ticket money for my wife and her six months accommodation in the country as my daughter is treated,” Kinuthia said.
He claimed it is then that the founder of Hope Foundation Benson Wanjau offered to help raise the funds.
Kinuthia said the foundation deals with children living with disabilities.
He said the foundation agreed to open a
bank account under the child’s name where the raised funds would be deposited.
Kinuthia said a paybill number 317081 was also set up for well-wishers to send their contributions.
He claimed that Wanjau withdrew the money from the paybill account without involving them as earlier agreed.
“Wanjau put up photos of my daughter
on social media seeking financial assistance and the response was overwhelming,” Kinuthia said.
He said the family realised things
were not okay when they requested to have the money withdrawn from the paybill account as the departure date drew near.
After noticing his reluctance to
help withdraw the money from the paybill account, they decided to contact Safaricom and were given transcripts showing that Sh2.8 million had been
deposited in the account and later withdrawn.
The family later realised that Wanjau had also identified himself as the child’s father at the Canadian Embassy while looking for a visa.
Kinuthia said Wanjau visited the embassy on Thursday and claimed Muthoni was critically ill and could not travel for treatment.
He said Wanjau has all the travel documents for the baby and her mother.
The family is now worried that their
baby may lose the only opportunity to get treatment.
Murang’a police boss Naomi Ichami on Friday said police are looking for Wanjau to get his side of the story.
“We want to get his statement so
that we can be able to pursue the matter,” she said.
Efforts to contact Wanjau were fruitless as his phone was switched off since Friday.
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Wanjau started a good cause I guess greed got to him , true hes been offline since Saturday