CS Justin Muturi: NIS was behind my son's abduction
Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Human Capital Development Justin Muturi addresses journalists after recording a statement at DCI offices at Kilimani Police Station on January 14, 2025.
Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has alleged that Kenya's intelligence agency was behind the abduction of his son last year.
In a statement made to DCI, he said the National Intelligence Service (NIS) took his son Leslie Muturi in Nairobi on June 22, 2024, and only released him after a phone call from President William Ruto at his insistence.
CS Muturi narrated how he reached out to several senior government and security officials to help locate his son to no avail.
He said said he personally called Deputy President, and then Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, his then PS Raymond Omollo, National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director-General Noordin Haji, then Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome, DCI boss Mohamed Amin, Anti-Terrorism Protection Unit boss Said Kiprotich Mohamed, and Mr Amin’s deputy, John Onyango, desperately looking for his son.
In the end, CS Muturi said, it took a call by President Ruto to Mr Haji, who he alleges had been ducking his calls for two days, to have his son released.
“Standing outside the (State House) pavilion, I heard the President ask Noordin Haji if he was holding my son. Noordin confirmed that indeed he was holding him and the President instructed him to release Leslie immediately. Noordin responded that Leslie would be release within the hour," CS Muturi, who was then Attorney-General, narrated in his written statement to the DCI.
His son was abducted after having a drink with his friends at a restaurant in Kilimani. Also with him was Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje and another man identified as Marangu Imanyara, before they decided to attend a birthday party in Lavington.
Moments later, while leaving the restaurant, Leslie was kidnapped by armed men wearing hoods who jumped out of a white Prado while wielding AK-47 rifles. They forced him into their car before speeding off.
This account, CS Muturi said, was given to him by his son’s wife and was again confirmed to him by Mwenje.
