Where are they? Kin of missing Kenyans cling to fading hope

Former Kenya Air Force officer and security analyst Mwenda Mbijiwe disappeared in June 2021. [File, Standard]

They vanished without a trace. Months later, their families are still searching, courts are demanding answers and the question remains: where are they? For families of missing Kenyans, the agony does not end with an abduction.

It begins with unanswered telephone calls, frantic visits to police stations, searches through hospitals and mortuaries, and the painful uncertainty of not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead.

From former Kenya Air Force officer and security analyst Mwenda Mbijiwe, who disappeared in June 2021, to Gen Z protesters, activists Steve Mbisi Kavingo and Emmanuel Mukuria, Tanzanian activist Twaha Mwaipaya and Busia businessman Ahmed Ibrahim Ali Mohamed, the list of people whose disappearances have left families desperately searching for answers continues to grow.

Others, including activists Gideon Kibet, popularly known as Kibet Bull, Billy Mwangi, Peter Muteti, Bernard Kavuli, Ronny Kiplang'at, Bob Njagi and Aslam Longton, eventually resurfaced after days or weeks in captivity, while the disappearances of Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich, Nairobi lawyer Abshir Ahmedsadak Abdi and his friend Ayub Maalim have renewed questions about the safety of lawyers, journalists, activists and individuals allegedly targeted by armed men.

The mysterious abductions and disappearances, many occurring in broad daylight over the past two years under President William Ruto's administration, have drawn the attention of the High Court, Kenyans and civil society organisations, as families spend months searching for their missing loved ones.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen told Parliament that more than 50 Kenyans had been reported missing following abductions, with 18 still unaccounted for in the November 2025 government tally, while more than 22 people have reportedly been abducted or gone missing in 2026, raising fresh questions about State accountability and the fate of those who vanished.

The cases exposing troubling questions about the whereabouts of those who vanished, the circumstances surrounding their disappearance and the State's accountability for protecting citizens and investigating alleged abductions.

For some families, the last sighting of their loved ones was in the company of armed men dressed in full combat gear, wielding rifles, handcuffing their victims and concealing their faces behind balaclavas in what appeared to be coordinated security-style operations.

For others, witnesses allegedly watched as their relatives and friends were bundled into vehicles and driven away.

What followed was a trail of missing-person reports, court applications and demands for security agencies to explain what happened.

But the answers remain elusive, as senior security officials, who command the operational capacity, technical expertise and equipment to protect Kenyans and their property, have repeatedly denied involvement in the disappearances or knowledge of the victims' whereabouts.

In one of the most shocking cases of enforced disappearance, Busia businessman Ahmed Ibrahim Ali Mohamed has remained missing for 293 days since boarding a Nairobi-bound bus on January 25, 2026, never to reach his destination.

According to a judgement rendered on Friday (November 13,2026), Ibrahim never reached his destination but never reached his destination after the vehicle was allegedly intercepted at a multi- agency roadblock near Korinda Main Prison, where he was singled out and bundled into another vehicle by people suspected to be security officers.

His family would later report his disappearance to police, triggering a search that has since moved from Busia to the corridors of justice seeking answers following an application by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and his uncle Mohamed Garad Mohamed.

The petitioners told the court that Ibrahim was singled out, subjected to a search and interrogation, stripped of his personal effects and forcibly bundled into a secondary vehicle.

Relatives led by Garad said he was a known businessman with investments in Busia claiming Ibrahim was carrying USD130,000 for business transactions and had never been presented before a court.

“Ahmed is one of Busia’s businessmen; he is not a stranger, he’s lived here, he’s got all his money here, he’s not someone who’s Al-Shabaab as being suspected,” Garad said.

The family said it had visited several security offices seeking information about his whereabouts.

“We have walked all the offices from Busia to Kakamega, the head in Kakamega Issa, refused to meet us or talk to us,” a brother claimed.

Omtatah subsequently took up the matter, seeking judicial intervention and accountability from security agencies.

The police, intelligence agencies and other State respondents denied arresting or holding him, maintaining that he had failed to reach Nairobi after boarding the bus and was believed to have been abducted by criminals impersonating police officers

The court examined documents including a bus ticket, passenger manifest and police statements relating to his journey.

In a judgement rendered on Friday November 13, 2026, Justice Samuel Mohochi condemned the government after finding serious inconsistencies in the State's account, particularly concerning the operation at the roadblock, the handling of witnesses and the investigation diary.

The judge questioned how armed individuals could allegedly stop a public service bus near a fortified prison, inspect passengers, remove one of them and drive away without intervention from security officers operating in the area and at the road block.

He observed according to the evidence that the operation was not a hurried roadside encounter but a coordinated and prolonged exercise involving multiple stages.

The judge was particularly scathing about the failure by investigators to interview key witnesses, including the bus driver Peter Kimemia, who was at the centre of the incident.

Justice Mohachi said the evidence provided “powerful circumstantial proof of state complicity, collusion, or a cover-up.”'

She further rejected the State's suggestion that ordinary criminals could have carried out the operation without attracting intervention from security agencies.

“This Court cannot accept such a position,” the judge declared.

She described the circumstances as demonstrating a “fundamental collapse of operational control, gross institutional negligence, and an outright failure to fulfil the State's absolute mandate to protect life and liberty under Articles 21 and 244.”

The judge also warned that the Executive could not defeat a citizen's right to liberty through unsupported claims and conjecture.

“The executive cannot defeat the liberty of a citizen based on unsupported conjecture,” He stated.

Justice Mohochi further faulted the State for failing to fulfil its constitutional and international obligations to prevent enforced disappearances, warning that the absence of a domestic legal framework criminalising the practice had created a dangerous gap.

The judge observed that Kenya had signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2007 but had failed to ratify and domesticate it.

He said this had created “a fertile lacuna for elements within the state to perpetuate enforced disappearances with impunity.”

Justice Mohochi also criticised IPOA, accusing the oversight agency of failing to exercise its statutory responsibility during the proceedings.

The judge described its position as a “totality shameful and untenable position”, and ordered its chairperson to immediately assume full, independent and exclusive investigative control over Ibrahim's disappearance.

He ordered IG Douglas Kanja, DCI Director Mohamed Amin and the ATPU commander to produce Ibrahim dead or alive within 48 hours, awarded Sh5.84 million in constitutional damages against specified State respondents

The court directed IPOA to record statements from all key witnesses, including the bus driver, booking clerk and armed prison gate wardens who were stationed at Korinda Main Prison on the night Ibrahim disappeared within 45 days.

In addition, the judge ordered the Inspector General and DCI Director to conduct an internal administrative inquiry into possible involvement, collusion or negligence by officers within the National Police Service, DCI and ATPU.

The security chiefs were directed to convene a physical meeting with Ibrahim's uncle and immediate family within 14 days and tender an unreserved apology for institutional indolence, omissions and failure to conduct timely investigations.

Within 21 days, the IG and DCI boss must also publish a formal public apology, acknowledging the investigative lapses and demonstrating that the disappearance was not authorised by the institutions.

The judge emphasised that enforced disappearance was not an isolated incident but a continuing violation.

“Enforced disappearance is a continuous, agonizing violation,” she observed, warning that the Constitution does not permit citizens to vanish into thin air or tolerate unacknowledged secret detention.

Long before the June 2024 Gen Z protests, families were already seeking answers over unexplained disappearances.

One of the most prominent cases is that of Mwenda Mbijiwe, a former Kenya Air Force officer, security analyst and aspiring politician who disappeared on June 12, 2021, while travelling along Roysambu Road towards his rural home in Meru County.

His family maintains that he was abducted by men believed to be police officers. His hired vehicle was later found vandalised and abandoned near Tatu City in Kiambu County.

In June 2026, Justice Martin Muya dismissed his mother's habeas corpus application, finding insufficient evidence that Mbijiwe was in State custody, although he criticised the investigations as “wanting in substance.”

The judge questioned why critical investigative tools, including phone records, geomapping and vehicle checks, had only been activated five years after the disappearance.

Mbijiwe remains missing, with his mother, Jane Gatwiri, still seeking answers.

The June 2024 protests ushered in another wave of disappearances involving young Kenyans, many of whom were vocal on social media.

Among the cases that attracted national attention were those of Gideon Kibet, alias Kibet Bull, who was abducted in December 2024 and later found alive in Vihiga; Steve Mbisi Kavingo, whose wife said masked men took him from their home in Machakos as he showered; and Emmanuel Mukuria, a bus driver who disappeared during the protest period.

Another case is that of Daniel Kabusho, a taxi driver reportedly picked up by masked men along Kenyatta Road in June 2024, that has left his family searching for answers.

In Mlolongo, trader Kalani Muema was reportedly seized from his business premises in December 2024.

The disappearances of Martin Mwau and Justus Mutumwa also took a tragic turn after their bodies were discovered at Nairobi Funeral Home.

The cases demonstrate how families have been left with different forms of uncertainty: some still do not know where their relatives are, while others have had to confront the possibility that their loved ones were killed after disappearing.

The disappearance of Tanzanian activist Twaha Mwaipaya has brought another dimension to Kenya's missing-person cases, raising concerns about the safety of foreign nationals and the possibility of cross-border rendition.

Mwaipaya, a human rights defender and youth organiser associated with Tanzania's opposition party CHADEMA, was reportedly abducted on October 25, 2026, at Kanisani stage in Kamulu.

According to an affidavit filed by Vocal Africa Chief Executive Officer Hussein Khalid, armed men intercepted the vehicle in which the activist was travelling and took him to an unknown destination.

A friend who was accompanying him reportedly escaped.

The organisation moved to court seeking orders compelling security agencies to establish his whereabouts.

On October 30, Justice Alexander Muteti ordered Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, DCI Director Mohamed Amin and the Ruai police boss to produce Mwaipaya before the court, dead or alive.

The judge also demanded an explanation of the circumstances surrounding his alleged arrest and detention.

The court intervention intensified after concerns emerged that Mwaipaya could have been transferred to Tanzania without following the law.

On November 2, the court summoned Kanja to personally explain the activist's disappearance and the progress of investigations.

Justice Muteti observed that the State had a responsibility to explain whether its agents had arrested and removed the activist from Kenya without following due process.

“It is important, therefore, that the highest duty bearer assures the court that the respondents did not arrest and remove the subject from the country back to Tanzania as alleged,” the judge said.

But when Kanja appeared before the court on November 3, he denied that Mwaipaya had ever been in police custody.

“My lord I'd wish to inform this court... we don't have the subject in our custody throughout the Republic of Kenya,” Kanja told the judge.

He further denied that police officers had arrested the activist.

“Not at all, we don't abduct and make people disappear,” Kanja said, adding that any abduction should be treated as criminality.

Despite assurances by IG Kanja that investigations were underway, no findings or progress report has been made public or presented before the court todate to explain Ibrahim's whereabouts, two weeks after security chiefs pledged to investigate his disappearance

For Mwaipaya's family and human rights campaigners, however, the central question remains unanswered: where is the activist, and who is holding him?

In Mathare, the disappearance of four men just days before the nationwide Gen Z demonstrations marking the second anniversary of the June 25, 2024 protests left their families in anguish, uncertain about the fate of their loved ones and desperate for answers.

The four men identified in the court proceedings include Joel Kariuki Mwai, a Mathare businessman and former MCA aspirant involved in community initiatives, Macmillan Kiarie Mugo, a youth leader engaged in social and economic development activities, Michael Oloo Osoro and businessman Abdulaziz Molu.

Their disappearances were reported in June 2026, with relatives alleging that armed individuals in civilian clothing took some of them from different locations.

Mathare MP Anthony Oluoch raised the matter in Parliament, demanding answers from the government over the growing number of missing residents.

He sought clarification on whether any police unit had been involved in their disappearance and what steps the government was taking to investigate the incidents.

The families' efforts to trace the men reportedly included visits to police stations, hospitals and mortuaries, but yielded no information about their whereabouts.

The matter eventually reached the High Court, where Justice Alexander Muteti directed the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to conduct parallel investigations.

“While this court is still hearing the application to compel the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and Director DCI Mohamed Amin, IPOA, KNCHR and DCI are hereby directed to continue investigating the whereabouts of the four men who went missing on June 20, 2026,” the judge ordered.

The judge further emphasised the seriousness of abductions and the obligation of security agencies to establish the whereabouts of missing persons.

For the families, the court order was another opportunity to seek answers.

But an investigation is only meaningful if it eventually establishes where the missing men are and who was responsible for their disappearance.

The scale of the crisis is reflected in figures released by human rights organisations.

In December 2024, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that 82 abduction and enforced disappearance cases had been documented since June that year, with 29 people still missing at the time.

The civil society coalition Missing Voices separately documented 55 enforced disappearances in 2024, while the Independent Medico- Legal Unit reported an even higher tally of 89 cases.

In November 2025, Interior CS Murkomen told Parliament that 50 people had been reported missing following abductions, with 24 found alive, eight dead and 18 still unaccounted for.

Despite court orders, ongoing investigations and repeated assurances from security agencies, families continue to demand answers, with no publicly confirmed completion of investigations, arrests, prosecutions or convictions in connection with the disappearances discussed above.

No security officer or alleged criminals have so far been publicly held accountable in court for the alleged abductions, raising further questions about the effectiveness of investigations and the State's commitment to ensuring justice for the missing and their families.

Behind every report is a family waiting for a telephone call, a knock on the door or information that could finally end months of uncertainty.

For the families of Mbijiwe, Mukuria, Mbisi, Kinyagia, Ibrahim and the other missing Kenyans, the question remains painfully simple: where are their sons, brothers, husbands and loved ones?

And until that question is answered, the search continues.