Where is this Kenyan taxi driver and three Indian nationals?

Police in Nairobi are investigating the disappearance of two Indian nationals and their Kenyan taxi driver who went missing 40 days ago. The three were reported to the police as missing on July 24.

Mohammed Zaid Sami Kidwai of passport number Z6055003, and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan of passport number 25791129 were in the country on a tourist visa. Nicodemus Mwange is the taxi driver who disappeared alongside the two.

The two foreigners were part of a group of five men that arrived into the country as tourists on April 16, and proceeded to visit different destinations including high-end hotels in the Rift Valley and Nairobi.

A day before the men went missing, they had visited Maasai Mara, according to photos and details posted on an Instagram account.

A check by The Sunday Standard on the Instagram account of Zulfiqar revealed that his last post was on July 21, three days before his alleged disappearance.

On the career networking site LinkedIn, Zulfiqar describes himself as a cyber-security consultant.

For the last 18 months, he says, he has been head of governance, risk and compliance department.

In this position, he says he is responsible for ensuring that organisations are compliant with cyber security regulations and business requirements.

An initial report on the disappearance of the three was filed at Nairobi's Akila police station under OB number 16/24/07/2022.

The matter was thereafter taken over by Lang'ata Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers after Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi complained to Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai that his clients had disappeared under controversial circumstances.

On June 26, Abdullahi moved to the High court in Nairobi where he sought orders compelling the IG to produce the three men in court. He claimed the trio were abducted by people believed to be police officers.

High Court judge Hedwig Ong'udi, who handled the matter, ordered the IG to produce Mohammad Zaid Sami Kidwai, Zulfiqar Khan and Nicodemus Mwania within five days.

Yesterday, the lawyer told The Sunday Standard that despite the court orders, the police are yet to provide the families with details on the whereabouts of their kin.

On Friday, Abdullahi together with the families and relatives of the missing men met acting IG Noor Gabow at his office in Jogoo house, where the matter was discussed.

Abdullahi said Gabow had assured the families that the DCI investigators were doing everything possible to establish the whereabouts of the trio.

Dead or alive?

"We simply want to know what happened to the three. Are they alive or dead? If they are alive, where are they? In the event they are dead, who killed them?" Abdullahi posed.

The Sunday Standard learnt that during the meeting, detectives from Lang'ata DCI briefed the IG on their investigations which are, however, inconclusive.

A preliminary report handed over to the IG revealed that the three men were last seen when they visited a night club in Westlands, Nairobi, on the night of July 23.

According to investigators, the two together with their driver were caught on camera having drinks at the popular joint. They left the venue at around 11.53pm.

Three hours later, police in Langata were informed of an abandoned grey Toyota Fielder near Ole Sereni Hotel along Mombasa Road.

When the police arrived, they found the engine of the car still running, but there was no one in the car.

The vehicle was parked by the roadside and all the doors were wide open. Police towed the vehicle to Lang'ata Police Station.

Police believe that the three could have been abducted on that night while driving to a rented apartment on Mombasa road.

The Lang'ata DCI office has since recorded statements of 10 people, among them the caretaker of the house where the two men were staying.

Other witnesses who have recorded statements include waiters at the bar where the three were last seen.

The DCI report stated that information provided by the Immigration Department in Nairobi confirmed that none of the men had left the country.

A further scrutiny of the missing mens' mobile phone data revealed that a mobile phone belonging to one of them was switched off in Upper Hill, a day after he reportedly went missing. This was at around 1.15 pm the following day.

The second phone was switched off 30 minutes later at Muthaiga North area, while the signal of the cell phone belonging to the taxi driver was last traced to Afya Centre on the same day at around 12.45pm.

Last evening, Abdullahi said that following discussions between the families, their lawyer and the acting IG, the investigation was moved to the National Police Internal Affairs Unit after it emerged that security officers could have been involved in the disappearance of the three.

The unit, headed by Senior Assistant Inspector General of Police Mohammed Amin has set a one-week timeline to unravel the whereabouts of the three.