Kitengela Three: Sad tale of Njagi solitary confinement

A day after the Kitengela Three were released by their abductors, it is now emerging that Bob Njagi, the Free Kenya Movement coordinator, was kept in solitary confinement and not allowed to talk.

According to a close family member, the activist was kept alone in a dark room and was not allowed to go outside.

For the 32 days that Njagi was held, he never met or spoke to anyone and that his abductors never interrogated him on anything.

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And now, The Sunday Standard established, Njagi is mentally disturbed. “He seems to be learning how to speak right now having spent many days in solitary confinement and not talking to anyone,” sources told Sunday Standard.

According to Njagi’s relative, the activist had handcuffs throughout his captivity period until he was freed in the early hours of Friday.

“I am sure they mentally tortured him badly, until now he is not able to speak fluently, he is behaving like someone who is being trained how to speak,” said the relative.

The other two brothers, Jamil Longton and his younger brother Aslam, said that their captors questioned them over who was funding the demonstrations. It also emerged that the brothers were bundled together with other people even as questions emerged about the identity of the other victims.

In their confinement, the victims allegedly told the two brothers that they had been held there for more than two months. This also raises questions about whether they could be part of the people who have been reported missing from the anti-tax demonstrations that rocked the country in June and July. Several Kenyans who were reportedly arrested by police during the demos and went missing are yet to be traced, with their families saying they have looked everywhere for them with no success.

The Sunday Standard can also reveal that Jamil, 42, and Aslam, 36, are already on 24-hour security watch courtesy of a lobby group.

 Safehouse

The guards are not just for their security but also to monitor who they talk to after they were threatened by their captors not to reveal what they underwent in their hands.

According to their brother Razak Longton, the two are not yet back home and are in a safe house. “The way things are, the security of my brothers remains paramount, we can’t take chances,” said Razak.

The warning not to reveal any information about their days in captivity falls in line with other people who have been abducted and freed before with most victims being terror suspects.

Njagi’s family member told Sunday Standard that after he was pulled out of a Kitengela-bound matatu at Mlolongo, he was handcuffed and bundled into a Subaru that drove away soon after.

A video posted by an X user shows Njagi resisting attempts to take him away and his captors can be heard ordering him to alight.

Fellow passengers reportedly joined in his attempts to resist after the captors claimed that they were police and that they wanted him for an investigation they were carrying out.

The passengers reportedly rebuffed the attempts to paint him as a robber and instead insisted that he was an activist before he was taken away.

Njagi had come from the Kamukunji Police Station where he had gone in solidarity with Safina Party leader Jimmy Wanjigi who had been detained at the station.

 Hooded men

The news of their release was reported by Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo through her X account.

“I am informed that Jamil and his brother Aslam Longton were dumped at Gachie border of Kiambu and Nairobi by their captors,” she posted.

Her follow-up post was about Njagi’s release “At around 1am Bob Njagi managed to find his way to Tigoni police station and for assistance. He is alive and well”.

Human rights lawyer Hassan Nandwa who was representing terror convict Elgiva Bwire was abducted by hooded and heavily armed men from his apartment and disappeared for days.

In an address after assuming office, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja denied that the police took the Kitengela Three.