KDF and police on the spot over kidnapping of 46 people

juma chrispinus

July 26, 2018 9:38 AM

Police have denied involvement.

A whooping 46 people have been reported missing from January to July in six Coastal Counties and the police together with Kenya Defense Forces officers are to blame, lobby group Haki Africa has said.

Haki Africa's executive director Mr Hussein Khalid has said that they have received so many complaints from various families blaming the security agencies for the disappearances of their kinsmen. The disappearances have been linked to the ongoing crackdown on flashing out suspected terrorists.

"We have received so many complaints from various families blaming the security agencies especially the Kenya Defence Forces and the police on the disappearances of their kinsmen.

“We have recorded 46 cases of killings and disappearances of locals in the Coast region between January and July this year," Mr Khalid told journalists in Mombasa on Wednesday evening.

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Haki Africa revealed that the kidnappings started in 2014, after the worst terror attack in Mpeketoni, Lamu County, sentiments the regional police commander, Mr Noah Mwivanda, has denied. Mwivanda has instead claimed that some of the alleged abductees may have joined al-Shabaab.

“The Al-Shabaab recruiters are doing this so that they can leave no trace when the youth leave for Somalia. This helps the youth when they return home because no one would suspect they had joined the terror groups,” Mr Mwivanda said as quoted by the .

According to locals who spoke to Hai Africa, the number of people who disappeared spiked in 2015 when the KDF mounted a search for militants in Boni Forest in the famous Operesheni Linda Boni.

juma chrispinus