Fruitless search for deaf boy’s family

By Linah Benyawa
When you meet Stephen Maina, 15, for the first time, you are taken in by his infectious smile.
Yet beneath the cheerful face is probably a broken youngster who has lived through hard times including living off the streets of Bujumbura, Burundi, and rejection by a man he knew as his father.
But this part of his life, the journey he has walked, remains a mystery, for Maina is deaf and dumb, and can not express himself very well as his sign language is also limited.
Because he cannot write, it is therefore likely that Maina is illiterate.
All these have rendered a search for his family fruitless. The Children’s Department, which is currently taking care of him, is confounded by the futility of reuniting him with his loved ones.
He has been at the Likoni Remand Home for the last eight months and, although his stay here is more comfortable than life in the streets, it is in Maina’s best interest to be reunited him with his family.
The provincial children’s officer Maurice Tsuma says they received Maina on July 1 last year, after he was rescued by the Kenyan embassy in Bujumbura and brought to Nairobi.
Rescued from streets"Maina was flown from Burundi after being rescued from roaming he streets," says Tsuma.

LOST AND NOT FOUND: Stephen Maina was rescued from Bujumbura streets and flown to Kenya exactly one year ago, but a search for his family has proved difficult for officers at the Children’s Department in Coast Province.

Through limited sign language, Maina told his rescuers he was a Kenyan from Coast Province. That is why he was put under the custody of the provincial children’s officer, Coast. It is difficult to establish at what point he went to Bujumbura, or who took him there and how long he was in the streets before he was rescued.
But since he was brought to the home, he has remained a mystery. Tsuma and Mohammed Hassan, a child care officer, says when Maina arrived, he directed them to a home in Diani, Ukunda, where he showed them a man he claimed to be his father. However, the man disowned Maina, saying he was not his son.
Nagging feeling"Since then, we have been stuck with him because we don’t know where or how to start looking for his family," says Hassan.
But the officers have a nagging feeling that the man in Diani is Maina’s real father; they have similar names and share a physical resemblance while his neighbours claimed they knew the boy.
It is confusing, say the home’s officials. Establishing the truth through DNA testing, can only be done if the father agrees to. Under the law, no one can be compelled to undergo DNA testing.
Asks Hassan: "There are many unanswered questions: Did the family disown their son because he is deaf and dumb? Did Maina take us to the wrong person? We don’t know what to do next for him?"
Maina needs care and protection. While under the custody of the Children’s Department, he is safe for now, but what happens when he turns 18 and becomes an adult?
"We will just wait. Maybe one day his family will turn up," says the house master, Samuel Mangale.
Maina was taken to the children’s court in Tononoka — for determination whether

Maina with child welfare officer Mohammed Hassan. Photos: Omondi Onyango/Standard

he should be placed in a children’s home until he turns 18 — but his case is still pending because of his hearing problem and inability to express himself.
Education
The court referred him to Kenyatta National Hospital for assessment to ascertain his problem after which he was returned to the remand home where he is currently being taken care of.
"We will find him a school for the physically challenged so that he could be able to communicate better in sign language and perhaps remember where he comes from," adds Tsuma.