“Please Help Me Get My Child Back” – Young Father Shares Heartwrenching Facebook Post After His Daughter Was Taken From Him At Gun Point By His In-Laws

“Please Help Me Get My Child Back” – Young Father Shares Heartwrenching Facebook Post After His Daughter Was Taken From Him At Gun Point By His In-Laws

A young Kenyan father, Timon Makswell shared a heartbreaking post
after his little daughter was allegedly forcefully taken from him by his
late wife’s family. Read below:

To my late wife Rena, am really sorry I have failed you, I was not
able to keep the only last promise I made to you before you left this
world of keeping our baby Tamara safe, away from danger and taking care
of her.
To my little girl Tamara, dady is really sorry I could not be able to
take care of you any longer. I know I have failed you, I was the only
person who was to protect you from these people but instead I chose to
let them have you.
“Let’s shoot him”, said one officer as the other four cocked their guns
and pointed them at me. This is how I almost got shot yesterday night at
Spring Valley police station in Saika. My only crime was taking away my
daughter who is currently nine months and taking care of her after my
wife died in October 2018.
When I met Rena in 2015 at their farm in Laikipia and started dating
her, she was a very jovial and very hard working lady. I did not know
that she would someday be the mother of my child and who would later die
and leave me with a four months old baby girl to take care of; we
started dating as any other young people would but the only difference
we had from other people was the kind of love that we had for one
another. Then I started noticing Rena getting weak, and when I asked her
she told me that she had been diagnosed with some liver problems but
she was already on medication and she promised me she will be ok.

I made an effort of making sure that her parents knew about her
condition and this is how I got to meet my father and mother in law.
Months went by and Rena was now recovering well and could do any work,
things never got better in 2016 when we all thought she had recovered
fully. This is the time we went to her parents and I asked them to allow
me marry their daughter, but before we got home Rena cautioned me that
her parents wouldn’t like it since they were against their family
marrying from other tribes; I did not want this to stop me from marrying
the woman I loved, and to my surprise when we got home and it was time
to say why we had visited I did not experienced any resistance.
We went back to Laikipia town where we were staying and continued with
our daily hustles, and months passed (though we could visit their home
frequently) and in August 2017 Rena got pregnant. We were so happy and
worked as twice as hard now that we were expecting a baby. Then the
sickness returned and we thought it was just due to her being pregnant,
this time it did not go away and Rena had to stop working.

At 4months, Rena’s health started getting worse. We didn’t know what
to do, we visited all hospitals in Laikipia to see if we could get some
help but nothing changed. Then came the delivery time and since Rena had
grown so weak, the doctors at Rimuruti advised that she delivers
through C-section. After 3 days of staying in the hospital we were
allowed to go home and this is the time when things started getting
thick for us. Rena could not sometimes even get out of bed by herself,
there was no breast milk and the baby was almost starving. I had to talk
to Rena’s mother to give us advice on what we could feed the baby on(
being our first child) and she suggested cow milk.
Rena’s sickness went on for about two more months without a change, I
was now the only provider to both of us and sometimes I could not even
go to work because I had to look after the baby. Then Rena suggested
that since she had about two acres of land that she had bought with
money from her business I should call her father to come and help us
sell the land so that she can seek medical attention in Nairobi. When
her dad arrived in our house that day and we told him why we had called
him he almost went mad, he said he can not sell that land even if Rena
was dying. All this time Rena was all tears and begging him to just sell
the land but he insisted and said no. He then told us that he will talk
to his brother who works at Better Living in Nairobi (next to Maxwell
SDA) to help us out. A month went by and in September 2018 we got a call
from Rena’s uncle that we should go to Nairobi.

I went and borrowed some money from one of my friends promising to
pay back once we get to Nairobi. We left the next morning and I we
carried was a mattress. Rena was so weak, she could not eat anything and
would stop to rest after every three minutes of walking. When we got to
Nairobi that evening we were given a servant’s quarter in the uncle’s
compound in Harlinghum. The  next day Rena was taken to the hospital and
the doctor said she should be on drip because she was very weak then
return the next day for more tests.

The tests were carried out the following day, and to our surprise the
doctor told us that Rena had been bleeding internally from the
C-section that she had and that her liver was not improving either. He
then gave her some medicine that she needed to take from home. That
night I had to talk to Rena’s uncle about looking for a job since I
didn’t want to be a burden to the family. He told me that he would get
me some job at Better Living which he did after one week. During this
time, I was the one nursing Rena and taking care of our baby and when
the time came for me to report to the new job that I had just landed, I
requested Rena’s aunt to help me with looking after the child while I
was at work though I would be returning after every four hours to check
on Rena since she could not Annette go to the toilet by herself. She
never helped, sometimes I would come back to check on Rena only to find
the child crying by Rena’s side because she didn’t have the energy to
lift her.

Rena’s health was now worse than it  was when we came to Nairobi, her
body started swelling and got to a point that the doctors at Better
Living had to draw out the excess fluid, this got me so worried. I kept
asking God why he gave me a family only to take the mother of my child
away then I had this little voice in my head telling me that “this is
also how you came into the world”, but not exactly because for me and my
sister we were raised by our grand mother after our parents passed away
when I was 4 years old and my sister was 2 years old. But what about my
baby girl, what will happen to her since I don’t have parents and even
my granny is no more and the way Rena has been insisting that should she
die I should not give our child to any of her relative?

Time was running out so fast for Rena, and in October 2018 she died
leaving me with just a 4 months old baby. I got so confused, I did not
know what to do or whom even to talk to and what was going to happen to
my child. I was so afraid she was going to die and follow her mother.
When I called Rena’s father and asked what I should do he bluntly told
me that he don’t know and that I should talk to his brother (this is one
of those families where the one who has money makes decision for
everyone) but I had no choice to talk to him and ask him if they can
allow me to go and burry my wife at my rural home.

It was a rude shock, his uncle told me that I had not performed the
customary marital rights to their daughter and that there is no way they
were going to allow me to burry their daughter, he told me that none of
my relatives are welcome to Rena’s burial. I later came to learn that
during the time Rena was sick in Nairobi this family was busy making
birth certificate for my daughter.

But trouble started after Rena was buried in Laikipia, when we got
back to Nairobi with the child Rena’s uncle told me that I should leave
them the child and go stay on my own, when I inquired with one of Rena’s
cousin he told me that the family had taken two children from one of
their in laws after their mother died and that they use these children
to ask for funds from donors pretending that the children are total
orphans. This is when I realized why Rena had insisted that our child
should not be taken by anyone but should stay with me.

I had to make a choice between losing our only child and betraying
the wishes of my wife and leaving the job I had and starting from
scratch, and as you guess any parent could have chose to leave and start
a fresh and that is what I did. I then moved to Saika and started
looking for a job which one of my friends helped me to secure. I then
started getting calls from Rena’s uncle and Annette Kimuomi her sister
that I should return their child or they will frame me and take away the
child from me. It got to appoint when Annette Kimuomi gave my number to
some woman who told me she was from the DCI office in Kileleshwa and
that they wanted me to go to that office with the child and give a
statement. But after consulting with a friend he told me not to go since
these people were so determined to take my child and that they would
anything to have this child.

I continued getting threats to a point I had to go to the police and
report but the officer I got advised me to go to children’s department
and they would be able to help. I visited the office as advised and I
was given a letter to take to court so that this family can be summoned,
and then something told me to call Rena’s father and inform him that I
have been receiving threats and that I was taking the matter to court.
Rena’s father apologized and told me those people were acting on their
own without his permission and that he would like us to meet with
mediators from both sides so that we can solve this issue at family
level. He even gave me a date and I had my guys ready but he never
showed up, he did not even call. The threats also stopped, and I got
releaved thinking that finally they had decided to leave us alone until
yesterday at around 5.30pm when I stepped out to buy Tamara milk (she
was a sleep) only to be surrounded by police officers who then hand
cuffed me and took me to Spring Valley police station in Kayole.
None of the officers told me why I was being arrested, and when we
arrived at the station the first person I saw was Annette Kimuomi! Then
one of the officers told me that Annette Kimuomi had reported that I had
kid napped Tamara and that I have since stopped her from taking
medication. Annette Kimuomi had told the officers that Rena died of HIV
and that Tamar was born positive, so the officer told me that these
people have money and they can do anything so if I  know what is good
for me then I should give them the child. I stood my ground and refused
to tell them where the child is, I made a few calls to some a few
friends who even came to see if they could help but the officers chased
them away! It was now 8.30pm am still being held at the police station,
no occurrence book was done and when the officers realized that I was
not willing to give up the baby one of them went back to talk to Annette
Kimuomi and when he came out he called his other two colleagues and
talked for a few minutes.
This is when they surrounded me and on of them said, we going to shoot
you now as the other four cocked their guns and pointed at me. Then I
started thinking to myself, what will happen to my child if I die
because it seems these people are willing to got to any extent even if
it means killing me so that they can take my child. I gave in, because
this is the only way I could have lived to fight this off. I was bundled
into the police vehicle and they took my child, that is how I lost my
child then one I promised her mother that no one  would ever take away
from me. I know I have failed but I still ask myself is there justice in
this world?, what did I ever do to this family to make them treat like
this?, did I have to die to save my child, and had it be the police to
take away my child? Why did Annette Kimuomi have to drug the name of my
wife in mad lie that when the whole family knows that Rena died because
of liver problem and post birth problems?

As I write this am still shaken because I do not know what their next
move is going to be, they may even send someone to kill me so that my
story is never heard. For those who are reading this please I beg you,
please help me get my child back please.