• Three families among those to report the disappearance of their relatives this year
• They suspect security officials, but the authorities have distanced themselves
When a loved one travels to a destination, their family usually awaits assurance that they arrived safely.
For some families in Lamu, that never came. Their loved ones vanished in transit, never to be seen or heard from again.
The families have been left to painfully deal with all manner of rumours and theories as to why their relatives never made it back home.
Three of these families spoke to the Star. They say they will appreciate any effort to be reunited with their loved ones, whether dead or alive.
On June 19, Yassir Ahmed, 43, left Mpeketoni town in Lamu West to visit his mother-in-law. He was heading back to Lamu island in their family car with his wife, son and another individual who had hitched a ride.
However, they were forced to a stop at gunpoint by at least four individuals dressed in Kenyan military uniforms at Mkunumbi on the Lamu-Garsen road at around 4.30pm.
“A GK Land cruiser blocked our way. They also had a GK Landcruiser parked by the roadside, giving the impression they were specifically waiting for our family and seemed to have been trailing us for a while,” said his wife Yumna Ali.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
The father of four works as an ambulance driver for the county government of Lamu and is also a renowned contractor and businessman in Kiunga town on the Lamu-Somalia border.
Yumna describes the men who took her husband as Kenyan security officers as they were dressed in Kenyan security uniforms and carried guns.
She says when her husband stopped the car, the three of them: their son, the unidentified hiker and herself, were ordered to walk ahead without looking back, while her husband was asked to stay back as they wanted to ‘talk’ to him.
They were asked to keep walking and that anyone who looked back would be shot.
“After walking for some time, I peered back and both the men and my husband and the Landcruiser had just vanished. I immediately tried calling all his phones and they were switched off. My life has never been the same ever since,” Yumna said.
The man has never been seen or heard from despite numerous reports the family has made with the police in the region.
His father Mahmoud Abdulkadir appealed to the state to produce his son in court if he is guilty of any offence or release him back to his family if innocent.
The family has filed a missing person report at the Lamu central and Mpeketoni police stations under OB numbers 34/19/06/2021 and 16/20/06/2021.
This is the second time Yassir has been ‘abducted’. The same happened to him in 2017, when he was taken to Nairobi, interrogated and later released after a week.
“They did the same to him in 2017 but found no fault. The torment caused by his disappearance is overwhelming,” Abdulkadir said.
RIGHTS VIOLATION
Human rights activists have raised alarm over increased enforced disappearances in Lamu and the coastal region as a whole.
Is’haq Khatib, the vice chairperson of the Save Lamu organisation, 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 is 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.
Lamu community activist Rukia Rashid urged the government to boost security on the Lamu-Garsen road to stop abductions.
“It’s obvious we are not safe even when security agencies are close by. Such incidents create unnecessary tension and instil a lot of fear and stress for affected families,” Rukia said.
“We want to hear what the government has to say about Yassir’s case. If they have him, we want him produced.”
Umulkher Ahmed, a field officer with the Muslims for Human Rights-Muhuri-Lamu branch, said the fact that security agencies have been implicated in most cases of enforced disappearances is concerning.
Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia said he was aware of the missing man report but denied that security officers were involved.
“The family has reported to us. 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.
The situation is the same for the family of Taimur Hussein, 39, who vanished without a trace on June 28, this year, shortly after he had been released by the Kahawa law courts in Nairobi, never to be seen or heard from again.
Taimur, the secondborn in a family of three, had been arrested by Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) officers in Lamu on June 11, 2021, only for his family to be later informed by security officials that their son been on the police radar for a while.
He was later arraigned at the Lamu law courts on Monday of June 14 on terror-related charges and for resisting police arrest.
His mother, Zeinab Hussein, 71, said her son was badly beaten and assaulted by ATPU officers during the arrest and that he suffered broken fingers, arm, leg and head injuries.
The charges were dropped on June 18, but investigating officers in the case requested to have Taimur taken to the ATPU headquarters in Nairobi for further interrogations.
“After the Lamu charges were dropped on June 18, they disappeared with him for three days, during which he wasn’t allowed access to his phone. They brought him to Kahawa law courts on June 21 and still asked for more time to detain. They were given up to June 28,” Hussein said.
VANISHED!
Come June 28, the same court ordered the ATPU to release Taimur unconditionally but as fate would have it, they would never see him.
“I was to meet my son at the ATPU offices before his release. When I showed up, I was told my son had been let go 30 minutes ago. The officer in charge however told me he had confiscated Taimur’s phones with the promise that he would go back for them on July 2,”she said.
The distraught mother however says she never got to find her son where they said they had released him to.
“I walked around that area, checked and asked around but nobody had seen him. I don’t know if they released my son or if they did something to him. I believe he was never released to begin with. I wish they would be honest with me, I am his mother,”she said.
The family has since filed a missing person’s report at the Capitol Hill police station in Nairobi under OB number 16/30/06/2021 but have yet to find him.
They insist security agencies are better placed to explain the whereabouts of their son.
Apart from searching for Taimur in morgues, hospitals and jails around the country to no avail, the family filed an application at the High Court to get the ATPU to produce their relative dead or alive or at the very least, produce CCTV footage of his alleged release.
“The ATPU claim they have since deleted the footage as is normal procedure for them to do after every 24 hours. We don’t buy that and we suspect there is more to this,” said his sister Fauziya Hussein.
Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid said Taimur’s case is a perfect example of how security forces use extralegal means to unfairly and unconstitutionally hold suspects.
“We are calling on Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to urgently intervene and ensure Kariuki and his family get justice. Police must follow the law and court decisions. Kenya is not a police state and all, including police, must work within the confines of the law,” Khalid said.
Coast regional coordinator John Elungata and Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia have both denied being aware of Taimur’s case despite the fact that he was arrested at the Coast region.
“I am not aware of the case, no idea,” Elungata said.
The family of Adan Kulo, 28, is in the same boat. Kulo was a milk vendor at Makafuni village in Lamu island. He disappeared on the night of January 23 on his way back home after visiting the neighbouring Kandahar village to buy foodstuff.
He has never been seen nor heard from and his phones remain switched off.
Lamu county police commander Moses Murithi confirmed that the family had reported the man’s disappearance to the police but denied that police were involved in his disappearance as the man had no criminal record.
“We don’t have him as he was no criminal. At this moment, we suspect he might have crossed into Somalia to join terror groups. We, however, welcome any leads to help trace him,” Murithi said.