April 13 was a normal day for Salim Mzee Salim, 61, a street food vendor in Mombasa.
He would receive a call at midday from a friend, only identified as Hashim, to join him for a biryani lunch in Mishomoroni. Biryani is a mixed rice dish popular at the Coast.
It is like Salim ate his way to disappearance, never to surface again.
His sister Sridous told the Star every effort to trace her brother after the lunch call has proved futile.
"A week after learning of his disappearance, I visited every police station to no avail, before formally reporting the matter at K9 police station. We have made it a habit in our family to visit Coast General Hospital mortuary once every week to see if we will get his body," she said.
The astonishing thing, she says, is that the friend who invited Salim for the biryani lunch is still free after recording a statement at K9 police station.
"I thought police would hold him to help them with investigation", she said. Police have been dismissing the family, telling them no leads on Salim's whereabouts have been found.
"We appeal to have our brother back. We appeal to those having him to please return even his body so we bury him," Sridous said.
Haki Africa's executive director Hussein Khalid whose organisation has been handling the case said enforced disappearance cases in the region are rampant.
"Where the victim is an older person, like the case of Mzee Salim, the most likely cause is accusation of recruiting youths into the terror group al Shabaab, while younger victims are always on suspicion for being terrorists or members of criminal gangs," he said.
Khalid said it is likely Mzee Salim was suspected of recruiting youth into radical terror groups, a reason for many people disappearing in the region.
"Civil society organizations and the local community have invested a lot of efforts in developing resilience as part of confronting radicalisation into terror and criminal gangs, but the high handed coercive approach of the state has been undermining this," he said.
Khalid said his organisation has recommended to the government to use non-coercive strategies in combating extremism.
"Using coercive approaches is counterproductive as it pushes young people and returnees a way from government and rehabilitative units in the society," he said.
"Many times members of gangs or Al Shabaab who surrender on promise amnesty are gunned down a few days after renouncing crime. This portrays our efforts in reaching out to them as insincere," he said.
