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A Kenyan police officer who went missing from work – and could not be found for nine months because no one knew he'd been admitted to hospital – has resurfaced.

Reuben Kimutai Lel was declared a deserter and his salary stopped after a futile, months-long search by fellow police officers.

Their inquiries from his family, who were also desperately looking for him, were all in vain.

Mr Lel was then charged in absentia and an arrest warrant was issued against him. The case was later withdrawn after police failed to find him.

It turned out that he had all along been in hospital in a coma – he was missing from December last year until last week when he regained consciousness.

Although he had not regained his full memory, he was then able to identify himself by name and that he was a police officer – and so the search for his relatives began, local media report.

The police officer had been a victim of a road accident in the capital Nairobi and was admitted on 21 December as an unknown person at the main referral hospital in the city. He had no identity documents with him.

He is reportedly due to be reinstated on the police service's payroll.