Elderly man kicked out of SGR found hungry and sickly after four days search

Piece by: Fridah Naliaka
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A 74-year-old man who disappeared after boarding a passenger train heading to Mombasa has been found in Buruburu.

The family of Peterson Mwangi Ngunyi found him barefooted and without a coat.

After spending four days in the cold, Mwangi who is mentally ill appeared sickly. His health had further deteriorated for he had stayed without food.

On May 11, the elderly man had a brief encounter with SGR staff onboard Madaraka Express train before he went missing.

According to the Kenya Railways, the man was questioned over an invalid ticket that belonged to a passenger who would have traveled from Mombasa to Nairobi the previous day.

Mwangi's daughter, Tabitha said that her father was ejected out of the train midway despite having a valid ticket.

She said that he passed through all security checks at the Syokimau Railway Terminus in Nairobi, and was cleared to board the 8 AM train.

“He is 74-years-old and he is suffering from mild memory loss and a little aggressive when confronted but not physically and to be clear my dad had a valid ticket which was printed in Nairobi by my brother who took him to the station and made sure he’d passed all the security checkpoints otherwise they could not have allowed him in without a valid ticket,” she said.

Kenya Railways denied the allegations, saying that its staff sought to help the man but he alighted from the train at Athi River station.

“To assist Mwangi, the train crew requested him to reach out to a family member to pay for his journey but he neither had a phone nor any contact through which he could get assistance,” read a statement by the corporation.

It further stated that;

"The Kenya Railways is working closely with the police who have circulated the missing person report to all police stations countrywide in the hope of reuniting Mwangi with his family,”