• Omar, who lives only five minutes drive away, rushed to his son’s house, worried and confused. He found his son had been taken away by the men.
• Jamal had also been abducted in the same manner Nabil was, only that in his case, it happened at around 1am.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
On April 18 at around 5pm, 24-year-old Nabil Ahmed was relaxing at home with his wife after the day’s hustle, when he heard screeching of cars outside his house.
Before he knew it, armed men stormed into his house demanding he raise his hands and go with them.
For a moment, he thought these were normal police officers, who had once again come to question him over a scuffle he was involved in two days earlier, for which he was arrested.
But this initial thought became doubtful because the men were excessively aggressive, were all in civilian clothes and armed, and some wore balaclavas.
His wife screamed in fear but had the sense to call her father-in-law, Ahmed Omar.
Omar, who lives only five minutes drive away, rushed to his son’s house, worried and confused. He found his son had been taken away by the men.
Confused because a day earlier, on Wednesday, he (father) had been arrested by officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit and was taken to the Coast regional police headquarters, where he was questioned from 1.30pm to 5.30pm.
And after the interrogation, he had been asked to produce Nabil to the officers on Friday.
“That is what confused me. Why would they ask me to take my son to them on Friday and then come and abduct him in his house on Thursday?” Omar posed.
He spoke at the Muslims for Human Rights’ Legal Aid Clinic near the Mombasa law courts.
“I was worried because I had heard what had happened just hours earlier,” Omar added.
He was referring to the abduction of Jamil Jamal, 26, by armed men said to be security officers, in the wee hours of April 17.
Jamal had also been abducted in the same manner Nabil was, only that in his case, it happened at around 1am.
The two, Omar said, are friends.
He said Nabil had been charged with attempted murder after the scuffle days earlier and had been released on a Sh150,000 bail.
He feels the charges were at the influence of some powerful forces.
“There was a scuffle between two groups of people in Tudor. Why would they charge my son with attempted murder? We have strong suspicion some powerful people are behind this,” Omar said.
He said when his son was arrested, his case was transferred to Urban police station, yet Tudor is under Makupa police station’s jurisdiction.
Omar reported Nabil’s abduction at Makupa police station under OB 53/18/4/24.
“To date, I do not know where my son is and there is no information about his whereabouts. The same goes for Jamal,” Omar said.
“I just want to know where my son is. Let him be investigated as procedure demands but we should know where he is and be able to visit him.”
Muhuri rapid response officer Francis Auma said like Jamal’s case, they will follow up on the matter to its logical conclusion.
“We will advise the family to apply for habeas corpus or act in their stead. These cases are becoming common again despite assurances by the President William Ruto-regime that these will be a thing of the past,” Auma said.
President Ruto, during fallen General Francis Ogolla’s burial in Siaya county on April 21, promised the country there will be no more extrajudicial killings and political assassinations.
However, Coast Civil Society Organisations Network, a consortium of CSOs operating at the Coast, dismissed this as empty promises.
“That is his talk,” Zedekiah Adika, the network’s chairman, said on April 26.
Muhuri director Khelef Khalifa said it is worrying that the head of state and security officers seem to be reading from different scripts.
On Monday, Khalifa was at the ATPU offices at the Coast regional police headquarters to enquire about yet another case of enforced disappearance from Lamu county.
“The President says one thing and the security officers do another. It is worrying,” he said.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO