Susan Wangari during an earlier interview at her home in Kasarani, Nairobi, on July 22. Her son Emmanuel Mukuria (inset) has been missing since June 25.
The past 56 days have been tormenting for Susan Wangari Wanjohi. She has been to every police station and major hospital within Kiambu, Nairobi and Kajiado counties searching for her missing son, Emmanuel Mukuria Kamau.
Mr Mukuria, 24, has been missing since June 25, when protesters stormed Parliament at the height of the anti-Finance Bill protests.
The young man was among demonstrators who flocked the Nairobi streets to pile pressure on President William Ruto’s government to back down on a slew of unpopular new taxes. In a video taken on the fateful day, which the Nation obtained, Mr Mukuria was captured in a group of protesters walking from Ngara heading to the city centre.
That is the last time Mr Mukuria, who was dressed in a black vest, a black cap and a grey trouser, was seen.
According to Ms Wangari, her son was a tout and his colleagues told her that they got to the city centre on the fateful day. They further informed her that he was picked outside Imenti House and bundled into a police vehicle.
“My son was together with other touts when the police officers fired a tear gas canister at them,” she said, adding that when they scampered for safety they saw him being bundled into a police vehicle.
According to her, some of his friends who were arrested that day have been released. But Mr Mukuria has been missing since.
When he failed to return home—the family lives in Sunton area, Kasarani sub-county—his mother reported the matter at Sunton Police Station under Occurrence Book (OB) number 26/29/06/2024.
Ms Wangari said that for the last 56 days, she has been searching for her son on a daily basis.
“Out of all those days, I can assure you it is only seven days that I have never left this place, but the rest of the days I have been up and down searching for my son,” she told the Nation on Wednesday morning.
Apart from the police stations, Ms Wangari said that she has also visited several hospitals hoping to find her son in vain.
She is worried because her son did not have his national identity card when he went missing since he had left it at home.
“My son worked as a tout, and when he left home with his colleague that morning, I warned them not to participate in the protests,” she said.
Ms Wangari remains hopeful and believes her son is alive.
“I still believe that my son is alive and the people holding him will release him,” she said.
Since the protests kicked off, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) recorded 66 cases of people who went missing.
Some of those that had been declared missing have been found alive but do not want to discuss the predicament they went through when they were abducted.
Mr Hussein Khalid, who is the head of Haki Africa, a human rights organisation, told the Nation: “It is really unfortunate that enforced disappearances are now the modus operandi for the security agencies. It is unconstitutional and illegal,” he said.
On July 28, President Ruto, while addressing a public meeting, dismissed claims that people had been abducted. He asked that if there was any family that had a case of someone being disappeared, then it should step forward and raise the matter.
“If there is any Kenyan who went missing, I want people to step forward and speak about it. I will be very happy to deal with that,” he said.
