Nairobi, Kenya – On the afternoon of August 19, brothers Jamil and Aslam Longton had simply had lunch at residence and have been heading again to work on the cybercafe they run in Kitengela city, on the outskirts of Nairobi, once they seen somebody suspicious.
A lady was loitering exterior their entrance gate, speaking on her cell phone, simply as she had been doing in the identical location once they first left for work that morning.
The brothers acquired of their automobile to depart, however just a few yards down the highway the lady, along with two males, blocked their approach with a number of automobiles. They approached the automobile and pulled Aslam from the driving force’s seat. The 36-year-old had been a vocal participant within the antigovernment protests that not too long ago shook the nation.
Though they have been in plain garments, Jamil, 42, advised Al Jazeera he believed the closely armed group that approached them have been police, pointing to a wave of abductions of political dissidents in Kenya which rights teams say is being carried out by state brokers, and a warning he had acquired.
Lower than two weeks earlier than the incident, Jamil, who can be a human rights activist, stated a high safety official within the space known as him and advised him to warn his brother by no means to attend protests once more. If Aslam did, “they may hurt him”, the caller stated.
Because the armed males grabbed Aslam from the automobile that day, shoving him into their ready SUV, Jamil dashed out, asking the group for proof of their identification and demanding to know whether or not it was a authorized arrest.
Once they refused to reply, Jamil threatened to name the native police station. “Noticing my seriousness, in addition they grabbed me and compelled me into the car, blindfolded us, and drove in direction of town and round so we couldn’t comprehend our location,” he stated.
The brothers say they have been held in a darkish room for 32 days the place they have been overwhelmed and threatened with demise if they didn’t reveal details about who funded the native protests in Kitengela.
“They might solely open the room each 24 hours to offer us a small portion of ugali [maize meal] and would solely give us 500ml of water as soon as each 24 hours … [and] supplied a small can that may be our bathroom,” Jamil advised Al Jazeera.
Ultimately, the abductors blindfolded the brothers earlier than driving them to a small city 14km (8.7 miles) north of Nairobi, known as Gachie, the place they deserted them. The 2 later realized that one in every of their associates, additionally a protester, had additionally been kidnapped and launched.
Incidents like this have been on the rise in recent times, focusing on each locals and foreigners, with the Kenya Nationwide Fee on Human Rights (KNCHR) pointing to a “worrying sample of abductions in a number of elements of our nation”.
For the reason that youth protest motion towards the federal government erupted in June 2024, residents and rights teams say abductions have escalated.
Since then, there have been 82 circumstances of abductions and enforced disappearances with 29 individuals nonetheless lacking, in accordance with KNCHR. “These kidnapped have been vocal dissidents,” the rights watchdog stated.
Protesters focused
Throughout the 2024 protests, Kenyan youth took to the streets demanding political and financial reforms after President William Ruto launched a controversial finance invoice, which might have seen the prices of primary items rise steeply. The weeks of protests have been met with a heavy-handed crackdown by safety forces wherein dozens of individuals have been killed.
Ruto ultimately revoked the invoice and the protests eased, however many took their dissent on-line. Rights teams say protesters and social media activists have continued to be tracked and harassed – and worse.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), which investigated the abductions, spoke to witnesses and survivors who stated safety officers – normally in civilian clothes with their faces hid and driving unmarked vehicles – forcibly disappeared protesters and even killed some perceived protest leaders.
HRW analysis discovered that the officers implicated within the abductions originated from agencies of the Kenyan Nationwide Police Service, such because the Directorate of Prison Investigations, the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, and the Nationwide Intelligence Service.
Nevertheless, Kenya’s authorities and regulation enforcement businesses have denied any involvement within the abductions. The Nationwide Police Service didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s requests over electronic mail for remark concerning accusations of police involvement in enforced disappearances, whereas police spokesperson Michael Muchiri solely stated in a WhatsApp message that the function of the police “is to cope with all types of criminality” and that “police have handled any of the reported circumstances with the suitable and deserved consideration”.
Though President Ruto, who beforehand known as reviews of abductions in Kenya “faux information”, lastly acknowledged the difficulty in December and promised to sort out it, he didn’t settle for authorities culpability.
“What has been stated about abductions, we’ll cease them so Kenyan youth can dwell in peace,” he stated at a stadium in Homa Bay, in western Kenya. However he additionally advised dad and mom to “take duty” for his or her kids, in an obvious reference to youth protesters.
The month earlier than, Ruto had addressed abductions in his annual state of the nation speech, condemning “any extreme or extrajudicial” motion. Nevertheless, he stated many detentions have been respectable arrests towards “criminals and subversive components”.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Head to Head final week, Kimani Ichung’wah, the bulk chief of the Kenyan Nationwide Meeting, repeated the federal government line that there are “legal components which were concerned” within the protests, additionally telling host Mehdi Hasan: “I don’t imagine there are enforced disappearances perpetrated by the state in Kenya, not nowadays.”
Civil society teams have, nonetheless, criticised Ichung’wah’s previous feedback on the matter – together with allegedly spreading false claims that abductees are faking their very own kidnappings for monetary acquire – whereas the Kenya Human Rights Fee known as for his resignation.
In response to the State of Nationwide Safety annual report Ruto tabled in parliament in November, Kenya had already seen a 44 % enhance in abductions between September 2023 and August 2024, with the nation recording 52 abductions in contrast with 36 throughout the identical interval the earlier yr.
Rights teams involved
“There’s a public outcry about abductions. A few of the kidnapped are turning up useless, and the state is doing nothing to cease it or defend the individuals,” Otsieno Namwaya, East Africa director at HRW, advised Al Jazeera.
“We’ve proof suggesting that those that are abducting protesters and authorities critics are literally state brokers,” Otsieno stated. He added that peaceable conferences have been “disrupted violently by the police” and even residents complaining about primary well being and social points are “being kidnapped or arrested like they’d dedicated some severe crime”.
Otsieno stated the abductions are “very worrying”.
Amnesty Worldwide Kenya, which has partnered with different rights teams and our bodies to supply assist and authorized illustration to greater than 1,500 protesters, can be involved concerning the “extreme power and violence throughout protests” in addition to the abductions.
“We’ve publicly advocated for the discharge of kidnapped people, organised unbiased postmortems, and supported strategic litigation on habeas corpus circumstances that appeared to contain enforced disappearances,” stated Houghton Irungu, Amnesty Kenya’s government director, calling the circumstances of enforced disappearances and lacking individuals “tragic” for the nation.
“It has led to the downgrading of Kenya’s democracy underneath the CIVICUS International Monitor,” he advised Al Jazeera, referring to the alliance of civil society organisations monitoring civic freedoms.
“State violence should not be the response to residents’ dissatisfaction or requires accountability and responsive governance. The Kenyan authorities should return to the trail of adherence to constitutionalism and worldwide human rights regulation.”
Irungu argued that if Kenya fails to uphold each nationwide and worldwide human rights requirements, this might have an effect on its worldwide standing, together with on our bodies just like the United Nations Human Rights Council and the African Union.
“Kenya is on a really harmful trajectory, a really slippery slope, and it doesn’t appear to be the federal government in the intervening time values human rights,” HRW’s Otsieno stated.
He pointed to the Kenyan abductees as indicative of this but in addition “cross-border abductions”, which he stated have been a difficulty of concern for HRW for years.
“We’ve seen South Sudanese kidnapped and renditioned again to South Sudan, the place they’ve been killed. We’ve seen Ethiopians kidnapped and brought again to Ethiopia. We’ve seen Congolese kidnapped right here and brought again to Congo, and we have now seen Ugandans now being kidnapped right here and brought again to Uganda.
“This entire operation contravenes Kenya’s worldwide obligations.”
Foreigners kidnapped
Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a Tanzanian journalist and human rights activist residing in Nairobi, is among the many foreigners who’ve discovered themselves snatched off Kenya’s streets.
She was leaving a salon in an upmarket a part of Nairobi one afternoon in January when she seen a girl watching her. Sarungi ordered an app-hailing cab, however when it arrived and he or she acquired in, two males opened the door and dragged her out, forcing her right into a ready van the place they blindfolded her earlier than driving off.
“I panicked,” she advised Al Jazeera.
Sarungi used to run a tv station in Tanzania, however after a authorities crackdown on unbiased media and different organisations with dissenting views, she was pressured to close down. She then moved to Kenya in 2020 and has continued her work, together with writing on governance and political repression in Tanzania.
She believes her abduction was as a result of her criticism of the Tanzanian authorities. Whereas she was being held within the shifting car, her captors tried to power her to offer them her passcodes to entry the cell phone she makes use of for her activism work and to contact whistleblowers. One captor spoke in Swahili with what she may hear was a Tanzanian accent.
After Sarungi was deserted on a darkened road 4 hours after being taken, a pal despatched her a screenshot of a message thread from a WhatsApp group chat the place members of Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) social gathering have been discussing her.
“After my abduction, I acquired [sent] a chat from the social gathering’s WhatsApp group the place a member rejoiced [effectively] saying, we pulled this off,” Sarungi stated. Screenshots from the group chat have been additionally leaked and shared by rights activists on social media.
Sarungi is satisfied that authorities in Tanzania and Kenya have been concerned in or at the least conscious of her kidnapping that day. She says, throughout her ordeal, her captors stopped at what seemed like a police checkpoint and believes they might not have made it by if the police weren’t on board with what was occurring. Together with reaching out to the Kenyan Nationwide Police Service, Al Jazeera additionally contacted the Tanzanian police about Sarungi’s abduction. Neither responded.
Different foreigners have additionally been taken from Kenyan streets, with some handed over to their opponents again of their residence nations. This consists of Ugandan opposition chief Kizza Besigye, whose legal professionals say he was kidnapped in Nairobi in November and brought again to Kampala, the place he’s now in prison. In July, 36 members of Besigye’s social gathering have been additionally kidnapped. They have been arrested by Kenyan police and handed over to their Ugandan counterparts and subsequently indicted on terrorism-related costs.
‘Secret unit’
Although Kenyan authorities proceed to disclaim involvement in or information about enforced disappearances, some feedback by senior officers have been revealing.
In December, Kenya’s former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who fell out with Ruto final yr over accusations of supporting the youth protests and was impeached, stated “abducting younger individuals will not be an answer” and alleged {that a} secret unit was behind disappearances within the nation.
“There’s a unit that isn’t underneath the command of the IG [inspector general] of police. There’s a constructing in Nairobi, the twenty first flooring on the metropolis centre, the place the unit is working from, led by … a cousin to a really senior official on this authorities,” Gachagua advised reporters in December.
Then on January 15, Justin Muturi, the cupboard secretary for public service, stated his son Leslie Muturi was kidnapped throughout final yr’s antigovernment protests, and claimed his abduction was carried out by the Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS).
In an announcement made to the Directorate of Prison Investigations, Muturi stated he went to see President Ruto after his son was taken. Ruto then known as the NIS, after which Leslie was launched, his assertion added.
On January 30, Nationwide Police Service Inspector Normal Douglas Kanja and Director of Prison Investigations Mohammed Amin have been summoned to courtroom to reply questions on the whereabouts of three youths – Justus Mutumwa, Martin Mwau, and Karani Muema – who had been kidnapped in mid-December in Mlolongo, just a few kilometres exterior Nairobi.
Kanja advised the courtroom that the three weren’t in police custody and their whereabouts have been unknown.
A number of hours later, nonetheless, Mutumwa’s physique was positioned at a metropolis morgue. Quickly after, Mwau’s physique was additionally discovered on the identical morgue. Muema remains to be lacking.
Activists and human rights legal professionals stated this raised questions on authorities’ competence and whether or not they have been being totally trustworthy with the general public.
“The IG and DCI director got here to courtroom and stated they do not know but fingerprints have been taken and the physique recognized. It both implies that they don’t seem to be speaking to one another or they don’t have management over completely different businesses underneath the Nationwide Police Service, or they’re mendacity to Kenyans,” stated Religion Odhiambo, the president of the Regulation Society of Kenya (LSK).
Kenyans and international nationals within the nation are involved for his or her security, with blatant daytime abductions being carried out in public. But when IG Kanja appeared in courtroom in January, he assured those who Kenya was protected.
“Your honour, I wish to let the individuals of Kenya know they’re protected. We’ve simply come from the festive season, and all through your entire season, individuals loved Christmas as a result of this nation is protected. So, I wish to guarantee you that we’re protected,” he stated.
In the meantime, in Kitengela, the Longton brothers are nonetheless reeling from their month in captivity. They stated, after enduring torture and trauma, they’re now being adopted by safety brokers.
Jamil, who’s chairman of a neighborhood organisation known as Kajiado County Human Rights Defenders, stated regardless of the threats Kenyans face from the federal government, he encourages individuals to embrace their democratic proper to protest.
“They used threats to say we should always not go on protests once more, and even come to the media as a result of they might end us, however that was only a software,” he stated. “Each different Kenyan as a patriot will train their constitutional proper to picket and protest if they’re unhappy.”
In Nairobi, Tanzanian activist Sarungi stays shaken.
The kidnapping incident has made her extra cautious in her day by day life in Kenya, nevertheless it has not damaged her willpower to hunt a greater society. She is not going to be silenced, she stated.
“If we turn into silent, that’s what they need us to do. Is there a value to pay? Sure. Does it imply that I cannot dwell my life freely like earlier than? Sure. However that won’t cease us from calling out the unhealthy governance we see in our society.”
