Police officers took at least five months to start investigations into the abduction of a man from his home in Likoni in 2021, a court heard on Monday.
Bakari Mwanyota, a butcher, was abducted on February 23, 2021 from his house in Consolata area of Likoni where he was living with his wife Sauda Omar and children.
Omar reported the matter at Inuka police station under OB 24/23/02/2021.
Mwanyota has been missing since then.
On Monday, during cross-examination by Omar’s lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, who was hired by Muslims for Human Rights, Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer Levin Nyamai said the first signal about the missing person was sent on July 2, 2021 and a second one was sent on July 22, 2021.
This was the first police action involving the case, Mureithi told the court.
Nyamai told the court he did not take any statement from Omar or Mwanyota’s father, both of whom went to the Inuka police station to report the matter, arguing that he was only instructed to assist Chief Inspector Matthew Ndogo who was the principal investigating officer and the then Inuka police station Officer Commanding Station (OCS).
Mureithi told the court there was a predetermination not to investigate the case and linked it to the disbandment of the DCI Special Service Unit by President William Ruto in October 2022.
“Are you aware that HE President William Ruto disbanded a DCI unit which was accused of abducting people?” Mureithi asked Nyamai.
The DCI officer said he was not aware of the disbandment.
In October 2022 Ruto said, “I am the one who ordered that the Special Service Unit, which was conducting extrajudicial killings, be disbanded. We have a plan on how to secure this country so that we avoid the shame of Kenyans killed in River Yala and others.”
The court also heard that Nyamai, who went to Safaricom, where there is a police liaison office, to try and trace Mwanyota’s movement via his phone, had indeed traced the wrong mobile phone number.
He said he tried reaching Omar through the phone number he was given in court but could not reach her.
He said this is part of the reason why he did not record any statement from her.
Despite admitting that a missing person report is a serious matter in the police circles, Nyamai told the court that he received no document indicating that any investigation had been conducted when he was told to assist in the investigations.
In her affidavit and witness statement on March 4, 2021, Omar had indicated that those who broke into her house at around 1am on February 23, 2021 wore police uniforms, had guns and introduced themselves as police officers from Nairobi.
But Nyamai said Omar could have mistaken her husband’s abductors for police officers.
However, Mureithi argued that Omar was convinced the people who broke into her home and took away her husband were police officers.
“But you say she could have been mistaken. So, who should have informed her that those she thought were police officers were not? Whose work is it?” he posed.
“I don’t know,” Nyamai replied.
Mureithi protested the inaction by police until after they filed a petition in court on May 31, 2021.
Nyamai said there was no record of any security operation that was to be conducted in Likoni at that time.
He said the then Likoni subcounty police commander Jane Munyoki was not informed of any security operation in her jurisdiction.
“If an operation is to take place in a place, the area subcounty police commander must be informed. That is the police procedure,” Nyamai said.
However, Mureithi argued that not being informed does not necessarily mean that an operation did not take place.
“If she was the one to be arrested, would she have been informed?” he posed.
Justice Olga Sewe gave Mureithi 21 days to file written submission and serve the DPP, who will then have 21 days to respond.
She said she will deliver her judgment on September 18.
