The recently unveiled ‘Missing Voices’ report on enforced disappearances in Kenya has laid bare harrowing accounts from families left searching for answers.
Among them is Alice Wambui, the mother of a missing son, who has opened up about the anguish of not knowing her child’s fate.
Wambui says she always looks at the door hoping that one day, her son Peter Macharia, 27, would be her next visitor.
"Every time I hear footsteps outside the house, my heart leaps, thinking it's my Peter. But the door never opens," she shares.
In an interview with the team compiling the report, Wambui clutched an old photograph of her son in her dimly lite small living room.
His smile beams from the fading image, but for Alice, it is a painful reminder of a son who vanished without a trace.
Macharia is said to have disappeared on June 25, 2024, after reportedly being treated for a gunshot wound at Kenyatta National Hospital.
"We searched hospitals, police stations, mortuaries, nothing. I won’t stop looking. As long as Peter is missing, I’ll keep fighting,” she recounted.
The crushing uncertainty has left her family in a relentless state of limbo.
Wambui's story is heartbreakingly familiar across the country, where enforced disappearances surged by 450 per cent in 2024, according to the report.
The report documented 55 cases, but other human rights organisations reported even higher numbers, with Amnesty International citing 89 incidents and the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) confirming similar figures.
The disappearances, the report says, peaked in June during the Gen Z-led protests against the impugned Finance Bill, 2024, with young demonstrators abducted in broad daylight by masked individuals.
Behind each statistic is a family battling despair and demanding answers.
Duncan Kyalo Musyimi is one such voice whose brother, Justus Mutumwa, disappeared alongside three friends in Mlolongo, Machakos county, in December 2023.
Weeks later, Mutumwa and another friend were found dead.
"It pains me to wake up every day and see his wife crying," Kyalo shares adding that the government has not helped them much save for human rights groups that “keep checking on us and helping as best they can."
For families like Wambui’s and Kyalo's, the fight for justice is full with obstacles.
Security agencies deny involvement despite mounting evidence, and none of the verified cases documented by Missing Voices has resulted in prosecution or convictions.
"Entrenched impunity remains a significant challenge," says Wangechi Kahuria, Executive Director - IMLU.
"Officers are rarely held accountable despite overwhelming evidence."
Nairobi reported the highest number of cases, followed by counties such as Kajiado, Kiambu, Machakos, and several other counties.
Most victims were men, but the report noted a troubling rise in the number of women targeted, linked to their active participation in protests.
“These are not just numbers; they are sons, daughters, parents and friends whose absence leaves an enduring void," says International Justice Mission Kenya Country Director Vincent Chahale.
John Muthomi, whose cousin Kevin disappeared after attending a demonstration in Kiambu, also shared his frustration.
He noted that they filed reports, pleaded with the authorities, “but it feels like shouting into a void. No one listens."
Kevin, Muthomi says, was last seen being bundled into a vehicle by men in plain clothes.
"Every knock on the door terrifies my aunt," Muthomi says.
"She keeps asking, 'Is it Kevin?'" For Bob Njagi, the leader or Free Kenya Movement, he knows the terror firsthand.
He narrates that he was abducted by masked men on August 19, 2024, and held in solitary confinement for 32 days.
"They said I would be dead by 2am and my body dumped in River Yala," he recalls.
During captivity, he lost 12 kilograms, endured physical abuse, and was denied basic necessities.
"I prayed a lot. I thought of my newborn
daughter and hoped I’d see her one day."
