Bernard Kavuli, a 24-year-old pastor and university student, sat slightly disoriented in a white car he had been forced into by four masked men.
The men had forced Mr Kavuli into the car around 6.40pm on December 22, 2024 – two days before one of the biggest Christian holidays which may have seen the pastor preach at the New Apostolic Church in Ngong, where he ministers.
Mr Kavuli’s screams for help attracted little action from the public, he says in an affidavit filed in court, in which the fourth-year journalism student recounts his 15 days at the hands of unknown individuals.
He says in the court papers that at the first place he was held, two other young men abducted in December – Peter Muteti and Billy Mwangi – were also present.
Mr Kavuli’s captors abandoned him in Moi’s Bridge, a town in Uasin Gishu County.
Mr Muteti and Mr Mwangi were released on the same day and abandoned in Nairobi and Nyeri respectively.
He says there were at least 31 individuals in the second location and that they were being tortured “for criticising the government on social media”.
The affidavit is contained in a case the Law Society of Kenya filed against police, the Interior Ministry, Director of Public Prosecutions and the National Transport and Safety Authority to have six people abducted in December produced in court and freed.
The other abductees were Gideon Kibet, Ronny Kiplagat and Steve Kavingo, who is still missing.
From left: Billy Mwangi, Ronny Kiplangat, Peter Muteti and Bernard Kavuli.
Photo credit: Pool
Mr Kavuli’s affidavit indicates that the kidnappers may have called his phone several times on December 22, 2024 while stalking him in Ngong town.
On his way to help his sister close her shop, the abductors struck, he says in the papers.
“Where did you take the milk?” one of the men asked, indicating that they had been trailing him as he had bought a packet of milk from a supermarket earlier.
Some boda boda riders were following the car, an action the student believes was prompted by his screams for help.
“I overheard them (abductors) ask: ‘hao wanataka nini (what do they want)?’. One of them instructed the driver: ‘Watolee bunduki warudi” (brandish the gun to make them turn back)’,” he says.
Mr Kavuli says he saw the gun, the riders and the direction the car took before he was blindfolded.
“The vehicle sped in the Karen direction, during which my mobile phone was taken by the captors,” he says in the affidavit.
During the one-and-a-half-hour journey, the abductors reportedly told him that he was under arrest, but did not give reasons.
At the first destination, the abductors stripped him naked.
One end of the handcuffs locked his left hand. The other was locked on a hook attached to a wall. The stripping was the start of a five-day interrogation, which included physical and mental torture.
The abductors asked him why he had been criticising the government on X. Mr Kavuli says he was slapped, kicked and struck with electric cables. He has attached medical records as evidence of the torture.
Mr Kavuli adds that he was not allowed to take a bath during the days he was held and was only served bread and tea occasionally, except on his second day in captivity when he was given rice. He was given water in minimal amounts a few times.
On the sixth day in captivity, Mr Kavuli says, he and Mr Muteti were given their clothes and transferred to another place.
“The shifting was at night, during which we were blindfolded, handcuffed and subjected to more questioning throughout the journey. On arrival at the new location, I was stripped naked, my hair and beard were shaved and I was made to take a cold shower,” he says.
The abductors eventually gave the two young men their clothes. He says the new detention place was a building with two blocks, each with one door.
In the first block where he was held, there were 14 others, including Mr Muteti. There were 16 captives in the second block.
Mr Kavuli says they were given breakfast and supper, delivered by a vehicle.
Unlike the first location, the captives were allowed two minutes to use washrooms.
“One of the captors said we were to be taken to a place called ‘Mt Kenya Discipline Academy’. They identified themselves as members of the ‘forces’ and instructed that responses to their questions should be accompanied with ‘Yes, sir’,” he says.
Like at the first location, he was assaulted for the 11 days he was there.
After supper on January 5, some 10 men and a woman introduced themselves as people whose job was to protect the government.
“They said that if I went home, I should stop criticising the government. They also forbade me from speaking to the media or my parents about anything I had witnessed,” he adds.
He was then bundled into a vehicle the following day and driven to Moi’s Bridge where he was freed after being given Sh2,000.
A woman took him to Moi’s Bridge police station. The abductors remained with Mr Kavuli’s phone and identity card.
