Where Are Kenyans in the US? Questions Asked as Search for Missing Irene Gakwa Continues
Where Are Kenyans in the US? Questions Askedas Search for Missing Irene Gakwa Continues
Even as the search for Irene Gakwa continues in Wyoming, her Kenyan compatriots in the U.S have been criticized for not actively participating in the search mission.
Michael Kirkland, a resident of Wyoming, feels Kenyans in the U.S should employ the same energy they use on social media to assist in finding Irene, who has been missing for seven months.
“I just see them making a lot of noise on social media rather than use the same energy to figure out the whereabouts of their compatriot. This is wrong on so many fronts,” Kirkland told KSN News on Sunday.
She added: “It is a shame that it is American women–and white American women for that matter–who have taken the lead. Where are the Kenyans for goodness sake?”
Irene, 32, has not been heard from since February 24th when she had a WhatsApp video call with her parents who live in Nairobi, Kenya.
She emigrated to the United States in May 2019, hoping to launch a career in nursing and first settled in Idaho, where she lived with her brothers Chris Munga and Kennedy Wainaina while attending classes.
This is when she met a man on Craigslist named Nathan Hightman and the two started dating before they decided to relocate to Wyoming in the summer of 2021. The two were engaged and lived together in a three-bedroom house in Gillette.
Wainaina and his brother Munga reported her missing to the Gillette Police Department on March 20th.
It is alleged that Irene and Hightman, 38, had broken up several times since they began dating in 2020. Her brothers thought the two were no longer dating and were not aware they had reunited and moved in together.
Hightman, who is considered a person of interest in her disappearance, told police in March that Irene came home one night and packed her clothes in two bags and then left in a dark-colored SUV.
Police later arrested Hightman and charged him with draining Irene’s bank accounts, deleting her email account and using her credit card at Walmart to buy a shovel, a pair of boots and a pair of pants. He was released on a $10,000 bond and his pretrial conference is scheduled for November.
He told police that he withdrew money from her accounts in an attempt to force her to contact him when she needed cash.
Stacy Koester, a resident of Gillette, has been organizing searches with a group of local women since April even though she did not know Irene in person. She organized a search with horses that specialize in human decomposition, used cadaver dogs, and covered hundreds of miles.
“There’s a lot of vast open country and one main road may have 50 to 60 side roads, twists and turns. So, it’s covering the areas and making sure that you don’t go over those same places repeatedly,” Koester told NewsNation last week.
Police believe Irene was taken to a rural area, mine site, or oil and gas location in a passenger vehicle or crossover SUV between February 24th and March 20th.
Detectives asked the public for information concerning a gray or silver Subaru Crosstrek with Idaho license plates that may have been trespassing or appearing out of place in rural Converse County between those dates. They also sought information about a possible 55-gallon metal drum that may have been burned or abandoned in the county.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to call the Gillette Police Department at 307-682-5155.
