As cases of forced disappearance continue to rise at the Coast, two families whose kin went missing two months ago, are distraught.
Abshir Ali Garo, 27 and Jackson Njue 32, are the latest victims of forced disappearance. They were picked by men in police uniforms on July 24, 2021. The two were having lunch at a hotel in Ukunda in Kwale County.
“Two men who identified themselves as police officers knocked on my door at around 9.30pm. After opening the door, they asked me for a bag, which they claimed had money as their colleagues waited outside,” said Garo’s mother Dhahabo Hassan.
“When they did not find what they were looking for, they asked if I knew a man by the name Rama,” said Ms Hassan.
Ms Hassan, said she could not identify the officers since they had face masks.
“Later, I heard my son Ali Garo and Njue shouting outside. They had been badly injured. When I asked the policemen to release my son, they beat me up and ordered me to tell them where Rama was if I ever wanted to see my son again,” she says.
That was the last time Ms Hassan saw her son. She was instructed to find Rama and report at the Central Police Station in Nairobi.
But when she visited the station, she was told that her son had not been taken to the police station.
The families of the two youths told Nation.Africa that they searched for their missing kin in several mortuaries, hospitals and police stations without success.
“My son was operating a mobile phone business in Marikiti Market. He had been arrested before for selling phone covers but he had never harmed anyone. I am appealing to the government to bring back my son,” says Ms Hassan.
Njue’s cousin, Charles Njue says he last saw his relative three months before his abduction.
“My cousin travelled to the Coast three months before he went missing. He said he was going to do his business. We had been talking until his phone went off on July 24, 2021,” says Mr Njue.
He said that his cousin’s phone rang on July 27, 2021 before it was switched off again.
The families have urged the government to intervene and ensure the two young men are produced in court.
“My son left behind a wife and two children, he was the family’s breadwinner,” said Ms Hassan.
Police have since remained silent over the disappearance of the two young men. Njue and Garo’s families have reported their relatives’ disappearance at Nyali and Majengo police stations with OB numbers 11/3/8/2021 and 05/26/7/2021 respectively.
Human Rights lobby group, Haki Africa has said that in the month of September, five cases of forced disappearances have been recorded in the coastal region only.
