Kenya woman in desperate search for missing Chinese father who owes millions in child support

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For eight years, Sophia Nyangoma has been raising her daughter alone while searching for her missing partner, Chinese engineer Dan Zhaolong, who vanished in 2018, leaving behind an unpaid childcare debt of KSh 2.75 million.

Zhaolong, from Zhijiang City in Hubei Province, had pledged KSh 386,000 annually under a 2016 agreement to support their daughter, Lee Su Jin, covering her education, housing and medical care.

The memorandum, prepared by NIM Advocates and Solicitors and signed with his then employer, China New Era Group Corporation, was meant to secure the child’s future.

“Before he disappeared, he always sent the money.

When he left for China, everything stopped,” Nyangoma told New Vision. She recalled a time of hope when Zhaolong, who worked as an engineer on the construction of Kiruddu and Kawempe National Referral Hospitals, promised to take her to China and build a home for them.

Her hopes collapsed when calls to his number were eventually answered by a stranger claiming Zhaolong had died abroad. “There was no death certificate, no explanation. I could not confirm anything,” she said.

Recently, the Eric-W@ng Foundation, a humanitarian organisation working to reconnect abandoned children with their Chinese fathers, gave Nyangoma renewed hope. “When I heard they launched a drive to identify these children, God answered my prayers,” she said, posing with her mixed-heritage daughter.

Foundation director Eric W@ng lamented that many such children are stigmatised and left without basic support. “Children who look Chinese are being laughed at in society for lacking what to eat,” he said, pledging to help reunite them with their fathers.

Nyangoma insists Zhaolong was once a good man but says without his support, she struggles to provide for their daughter. Her story reflects a wider plight faced by many African women raising children fathered by Chinese construction workers who often leave without fulfilling their obligations.