It was meant to be a celebration of freedom for Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, who was convicted 10 years ago after pleading guilty to terrorism charges , when he walked out of the gates of Kamiti Maximum Prison on Thursday afternoon.
Unfortunately, Mr Bwire and his cousin who was accompanying him, both vanished a few hours later on their way to Eastleigh and are yet to be seen since.
At around 7pm, his lawyer, Professor Hassan Nandwa, a celebrated Islamic scholar, left Jamia Mosque headed home. He, too, has not been seen or heard from since.
The lawyer had reported the kidnapping of his client at Central Police Station as soon as he was informed of his disappearance and then went for the evening prayers.
Shortly past 8pm, the lawyer’s home at Kingston Residence along Ngong Road was raided by plainclothes police officers who demanded to know the whereabouts of Mr Bwire.
Speaking to the Nation via phone, Prof Nandwa’s son, Elmiqdad Hassan, said he suspected something was wrong when his father’s phone went off for more than one hour from 7pm on Thursday.
“It is not normal for a man of my father’s stature to be unavailable for over an hour because he is always being called by his clients,” he said.
“This is when I heard a loud knock at the door. I rushed to open it and was shocked to find men armed to the teeth. They had guns readily cocked and I asked them who they were. Two of them identified themselves as police and showed their job cards. They were around seven who got into the house while several others were downstairs,” Mr Hassan said.
The plainclothes officers informed them that they were looking for the recently released prisoner and they suspected that he was in the lawyer’s house. After their search came up empty, they left.
“Why would the police resort to such means even if they are looking for someone that they say is dangerous. Bwire has his right, he has just been freed from prison. My father should also not be persecuted for representing him because that is his job. Let us follow the law,” the frustrated son said.
The family has already reported the disappearance to several police stations, and have even gone to the Anti-Terror Police Unit, which they suspect to be behind the abductions. They have also gone to the regional commander’s office, but are yet to find any information on the whereabouts of the three.
Interestingly, the ex-convict’s family had feared that Mr Bwire would be re-captured as soon as he was released and had expressed their fears to the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) chair Ole Naado Hassan nearly three months ago. They wanted Supkem to negotiate with the authorities so that their son would be safely transported to Busia and be reunited with his family.
“The family had instructed Prof Nandwa to come and talk to us as Supkem so that we can do our best to guarantee the release of their son as soon as he is released. This was three months ago,” Ole Naado told the Saturday Nation.
The Supkem boss has cautioned security agencies against targeting muslim scholars whenever they suspect anyone linked to terrorism.
“Professor Nandwa was my chairperson at the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance when we were young. He is a scholar of repute, someone who is dependable, not controversial at all. He chose the path of scholarship and never went for leadership in the mosque,” he said. Should the police continue with their arrests of Muslims without any proven reason or evidence, he added, the gap between citizens of Islamic faith and the security agencies will widen. Attempts to get comments from the Nairobi Regional Commander were futile as he failed to respond to phone calls and messages sent to him.
Mr Bwire caught global attention in 2011 when he pleaded guilty to taking part in two grenade attacks in Nairobi and said he was a member of the Somali-based militant group Al-Shaabab.
