Photo: Gordon Opiyo/Facebook
Reconnecting families separated by time and distance remains a growing social concern across East Africa, where migration, changing livelihoods, and weak communication systems of the past have left many people searching for lost relatives.
In the digital age, such personal appeals are increasingly finding wider public attention online.
Former Kenyan journalist Gordon Opiyo has made a public appeal seeking assistance to locate his daughter, Njeri, whom he says he last saw more than two decades ago, with strong links to Mbale in eastern Uganda.
In a heartfelt Facebook post, Opiyo said he is trying to reconnect with the daughter he sired with a Ugandan woman identified as Asha, whom he met while working in Kenya in the late 1990s.
“On a serious note, I am looking for my daughter Njeri,” he wrote, explaining that he met Asha, a young woman from Mbale, Uganda, between 1998 and 1999 while working at the Weekly Review publication in Kenya.
According to Opiyo, the relationship developed during that period but later ended after the newspaper shut down, leaving him facing financial difficulties that disrupted communication between them.
“When working for Weekly Review between 1998 and 1999, we were together, but grew apart when the Weekly Review was shut and I found myself struggling for survival,” he stated.
Opiyo further revealed that the last time he saw his daughter was in the year 2000. He noted that at the time, communication tools such as mobile phones were not widely accessible, making it difficult to stay in touch after the separation.
“The last time I saw Njeri was in the year 2000, and since there were no mobile phones those days, getting in touch was a problem. She went back to Mbale Uganda,” he added.
He also mentioned that Asha’s elder sister had been living in Ndenderu, a detail he believes could help in tracing the family or reconnecting with his daughter’s whereabouts.
Opiyo has now called on members of the public, especially those in Ndenderu and Ugandans with links to families from Mbale, to assist him in locating Njeri.
“Anyone around Ndenderu that knows any Ugandan from Mbale can help me trace Njeri,” he appealed.