Uproar over spike in cases of abductions by State agents

A police officer kicks a tear gas canister thrown back by a protestor during nationwide demonstrations against Finance Bill 2024. [AFP]

The dreaded knock in the dead of the night and the pounding of doors with heavy military boots is back. Incidents, akin to those witnessed three decades, of men in civilian clothes whisking away Kenyans critical of the government ago are back.

On Tuesday, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Faith Odhiambo talked of about 50 young Kenyans who had so far been abducted. Her own personal assistant, Ernest Nyerere, too was picked up yesterday at dawn from his residence.

“We are still looking for Shadrack Kiprono aka Shad Khalif, Osama Otero, Gabriel Oguda, John Frank Githiaka-Franje, Khalif Kairo, Drey Mwangi, Worldsmith, Hilla254 and many more who we are yet to identify,” said Odhiambo.

The LSK president said the country’s founding fathers were taken through the same treatment by the Whiteman in pre-independent Kenya but they never gave up.

“When the colonial courts jailed more than 500 Mau Mau supporters in September 1952 without legal representation, Argwings Kodhek single-handedly took on the formidable challenge of defending their (Mau Mau) rights by arguing in court that ‘Human rights are indefeasible and universal, thus freedom cannot be appropriate in the West but inapplicable in Africa’.”

Odhiambo added: “Fellow advocates and people of goodwill, Argwings Kodhek set the bar for us and we must live up to his dream of a free and united Kenya.”

Chief Justice Martha Koome also condemned the abductions, saying such actions executed by persons not identifying themselves and without presenting the abducted individuals before a court of law amount to a direct assault on the rule of law, human rights and constitutionalism.

“I have noted with deep concern the numerous allegations regarding the abductions of protestors amid ongoing mass protests in our country. I take this opportunity to assure the nation that the courts are prepared to operate beyond standard working hours if abducted persons are presented before the court and also to consider any petition for habeas corpus,” the CJ said.

Former Baringo Senator Gideon Moi also joined in the debate saying the emerging pattern where young people are being abducted on account of engineering protests against the Finance Bill is troubling and warrants unequivocal condemnation.

He said an attempt to suppress the voices of those who bear the brunt of over-taxation, unresponsive economic policies and lack of accountability on the part of government, through unlawful tactics, is unacceptable.

“We are a country of the rule of law and not that of the rule of men. If anyone is suspected of having committed any crime, they must be arrested in accordance with the law and be produced in a court of competent jurisdiction,” said Moi.

He added: “We reject the Finance Bill, urge the government to prioritise industrialisation over taxation and stop viewing the young people with grievances as the enemies yet they are victims of harsh economic policies.”

In the National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi lamented the return of dark days owing to the abduction of Kenyans, including Gabriel Oguda, a policy analyst in his office, who was taken away incommunicado at 2.20am on Tuesday.

He called on Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome to come forth and say the whereabouts of abducted Kenyans.

But the Majority Leader in the National Assembly Kimani Ichung’wah reaffirmed President William Ruto’s government commitment that the country is beyond the old days where Kenyans were abducted, killed and bodies dumped in rivers.

Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Churches of Kenya Chairman Samuel Njiriri said that cases of abductions were reported in the other regimes but the church does not condone any recurrence.

He said the Constitution gives Kenyans freedom of speech, noting that abductions should not happen because of divergent views people hold and condemned such instances.