Residents cry foul over missing persons

Relatives of people who have disappeared mysteriously from the border town of Liboi, Garissa, have asked the Government to locate them.

The residents, who claimed their loved ones were picked by people identifying themselves as police officers, say the Government should release their loved ones or charge them in court.

At least 20 people have been missing for the last one year. Liboi is 18km from the Kenya-Somalia border. Residents say they are neither safe from terror groups nor security agencies.

The missing persons include Sheikh Abdullahi Mohamed Yussuf, Mohamed Salat Hassan and Abdullahi Murshid Iman.

Yussuf was a prominent imam at a mosque in Liboi. According to his wife Uwah Bundid, he was picked up at the mosque while having breakfast with two others. 

The other two were later released, though their mobile phones were confiscated. Yussuf has not been seen since.

According to Salat Hassan’s father, masked men broke into his son’s house, beat up his wife and ordered him to board a waiting vehicle on May 6.

He said his son had earlier been kidnapped by the Al-Shabaab, who accused him and 7 others of being informers.

“If Al-Shabaab kidnapped him and nearly killed him, how can he be accused of being one of them?” he posed.

Iman was a bus conductor in Garissa, and was picked at his work station.