- They were dropped off at Mtwapa last Friday after they were given new clothes and Sh7,000 fare each.
- They were blindfolded the whole time
Is there a detention camp like the Unites States's Guantanamo Bay in the country?
This is the question arising following Friday's release of three people who had been abducted in Lamu in January.
Despite speaking well of their captors, the three said they still fear for their lives.
Sombwana Athman, Khalid Hashim and Aisha Omar said they were ordered not to change their phone numbers or tell the media 'truthfully' what had happened to them.
But they were also treated well and their abductors were courteous and generous, they said. In fact, they were given new clothes and Sh7,000 fare each when they were let go, they claimed.
Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid said based on their accounts, it is likely they were held in Malindi.
“It is unfortunate that there is a detention camp at the Coast that operates like Guantanamo Bay,” he said.
Athman, Hashim and Omar said they were grabbed from their homes in Miabogi, Lamu East constituency, on January 14.
They said they were kept in three separate air-conditioned rooms and were fed three times a day.
They cannot tell where they were held for the one month because they were blindfolded most of the time.
“We did not even see their faces because whenever the blindfolds were removed, we were told to face the floor. They conversed in hushed tones among themselves. We could not hear their voices well when they were not interrogating us,” Athman, a fisherman, said.
It is unfortunate that there is a detention camp at the Coast that operates like Guantanamo BayHaki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid
He said when he was picked from his house, he was blindfolded and bundled into a waiting car.
The same happened to the other two. The three were driven to Mtangawandha, from where they took a boat, whose ride lasted about 30 minutes.
They were then bundled into other vehicles and driven to their destination. The final journey lasted at least three hours.
At the house they were kept in, they could hear planes landing and taking off.
Athman and Hashim said their interrogators would ask them the same question every day.
“The only question they kept asking was whether we knew why we were taken,” Hashim said. “We are happy they had mercy on us and released us. But we ask them to release our brothers who they are still holding.”
He said apart from the three, who are blood relations, there are at least three other people held at the same facility.
The other three were identified only as Idriss, Athman and Hamza.
“I hope the way we were treated is the same way they are treating the others. The only thing that drove me crazy is I did not know whether I was going to die and how my family is,” Hashim said.
Omar said the interrogators asked her about the chief who was killed in Lamu.
“They kept reassuring me that I would be fine. When they released me, they gave me new clothes after having taken my measurements and also gave me Sh7,000 as fare,” she said.
Athman and Hashim also received new clothes and fare before they were blindfolded again, bundled into a vehicle and dropped off at Mtwapa in Kilifi county last Friday.
Khalid said the detention camp must be the same one used to torture victims of enforced disappearance before they are killed.
“This detention camp must be funded by taxpayer money. We want answers from [Interior CS Fred] Matiang’i who must tell us why there is a detention camp similar to Guantanamo Bay in this country,” he said.
The three victims were taken to Pandya Memorial Hospital Monday for check-up.
Khalid said security officers are now playing PR with the release of the three.
“We cannot fall into their traps. It is wrong to abduct someone and detain them incommunicado for a whole month,” the executive director said.
“These three now need psychological counselling which we are organising for them.”
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya