Body of missing activist Ibrahim Hilal Mwiti found at mortuary
Mr Ibrahim Hilal Mwiti.
The body of a 24-year-old activist who went missing in November last year has been found at Thika Level Five Hospital mortuary.
Ibrahim Hilal Mwiti was last seen at in the Nairobi city centre before he disappeared, prompting a search by his family as his friends resorted to social media platforms to look for him.
The family filed a missing person report at Kamukunji Police Station on November 15, 2024, under OB number 80A/13/11/24.
Tragically, the family's search ended in death after identifying his body at a mortuary on January 2, 2025.
Mwiti earned a living as a delivery man some 45 kilometres away from where he was last seen.
The circumstances around Mwiti's death remain unclear. His mother, Sadhiya Iman, on Friday told the Nation that they had looked for Mwiti almost everywhere before making the painful decision to visit morgues in Nairobi and its environs, a move that eventually landed them at Thika Level Five Mortuary two days ago.
“We were informed that his case was a hit-and-run incident. We know nothing else about his death...we ask authorities to help us unravel the circumstances of my son’s death,” she said during her son’s burial service at Lang’ata Cemetery.
She also revealed that prior to his death, Mwiti had lost his ID card and had experienced a lot of trouble securing a replacement, something that made his life unbearable because he would be asked to identify himself whenever he needed a government service or was stopped by police.
On his part, Prince Baha, an activist who has been working with the family to trace Mwiti since his disappearance in November, said they do not believe it was a hit-and-run.
“As a Muslim, our religion does not condone post-mortems but we do not believe this was a hit-and-run case."
Authorities are yet to issue a statement on Mwiti's case. However, his death comes at a time when the State has come under fire over several abductions.
Over the past six months, cases of abductions and enforced disappearances have become common as parents living in fear of their youth disappearing without a trace.
Read: Court: Abduction cases to be heard on January 8
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, there have been at least 82 cases of abductions since June last year, the period when youths took to the streets to protest against the Finance Bill.
In the last three months of 2024, at least 13 cases of abductions were recorded with December alone accounting for seven, the Commission said last week.
