• Yassir Ahmed, 43, was headed to Lamu from Mpeketoni when his car was allegedly blocked by a GK Landcruiser at Mkunumbi area on the Lamu-Garsen road at around 4.30pm.
• Armed individuals in security officers' uniforms took him away, leaving his wife Yumna Ali, son and a hitchhiker in the car.
A Lamu family has asked authorities to help find a man taken away by individuals believed to be security officers on Saturday.
Yassir Ahmed, 43, was headed to Lamu from Mpeketoni when his car was allegedly blocked by a GK Land Cruiser at Mkunumbi area on the Lamu-Garsen road at around 4.30pm.
Armed individuals in security officers' uniforms took him away, leaving his wife Yumna Ali, son and a hitchhiker in the car.
Ahmed is an ambulance driver for the county government of Lamu and is also a renowned businessman in Kiunga town on the Lamu-Somalia border.
Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia said he was aware of the case of the missing man but denied claims that security officers were involved.
“The family has reported to us. The involvement of security is far-fetched and unsubstantiated. DCI is investigating. We are calling on anyone with information to share with security agencies. We pray that he is safe,” Macharia said.
Yumna said it appeared the government vehicle was waiting for her family and seemed to have been trailing them.
“When my husband stopped the car, they ordered me, my son and the other passenger out and asked us to walk ahead without looking back. They warned us that anyone who looked back would be shot,” said Yumna.
When she looked back, both her husband and the security officer had left.
“Our car was still parked at the same spot in the middle of the road my husband had parked it when we were stopped but he wasn’t anywhere. They had vanished. It's like they hadn’t even been there. We were shocked and scared,” she said.
The woman said they moved their car and parked it on the roadside before boarding a bus to Lamu.
She said efforts to contact her husband since then have been futile as his phone is switched off.
Speaking to journalists at their home in Lamu island on Tuesday, Yassir’s father Mahmoud Abdulkadir asked the state to produce his son in court if he is suspected of any crimes or release him back to his family.
He said the family had filed a missing person's report at the Lamu Central and Mpeketoni police stations under OB numbers 34/19/06/2021 and 16/20/06/2021, respectively.
“Yassir is my second born. He is a peace-loving person and is also depended upon by this entire family. The manner in which they took him is not just inhumane but also disrespectful. Let them bring him to court and charge him or release him back to us. The emotional pain is too much,” Abdulkadir said.
According to the family, this is the second time Yassir has been taken away by security officers.
“Four years back, he was abducted by unknown people in Kiunga as he went about his business. It was later found that they were security officers. They took him to Nairobi, interrogated him and released him after a week," he said.
His sister Nadia Mahmoud called for his brother to be freed as his continued detention goes against his constitutional rights and is also hurting the family.
“He has three wives and four very young children who now have no provider because he isn’t here to take care of them. We are all losing sleep over his absence and wish that whoever took him would at least let us know where he is and how he is,” Nadia said.
Yassir’s cousin Walid Ahmed asked the state to produce their kin as the family is confident that he was taken by Kenyan security officers.
Save Lamu vice chair Is’haq Khatib condemned the forcible disappearance of Yassir and asked the government to produce him.
He expressed concern over increased enforced disappearances in Lamu in recent times.
“This a human rights violation. The law is clear on what should happen when one is arrested but Nassir hasn’t been offered that,” Khatib said.
(edited by o. owino)