Kenya kidnappings spark fears of return to dark past

The alleged disappearance of more than 80 government critics in the past six months has sparked a huge public backlash in Kenya.

A judge has warned he will jail senior security officials for contempt of court on Monday if they do not appear for a third time to account for a recent spate of alleged kidnappings.

The case is linked to disappearances documented by Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission since nationwide protests against proposed tax increases began last June.

At least 24 are said to be still missing.

Police and government deny illegally kidnapping and detaining protesters, but the country has a history of state-sponsored kidnappings and some Kenyans fear they are returning to that dark past.

Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja and Directorate of Criminal Investigations Director Mohamed Amin were ordered to produce in court seven social media influencers who went missing in December.

Five suddenly reappeared in early January in various locations around the country.

Mr Kanja’s lawyers asked the court for more time to record his statements and submit a report.

Billy Mwangi is one of the five. The 24-year-old was dropped off 75 kilometers (46 miles) from his hometown in Embu, central Kenya, by his alleged kidnappers in an apparent act of intimidation.

Billy’s father, Gerald Mwangi Karicha, told the BBC that his son was traumatized.

“The guy hasn’t shared much,” he said. “All I can say is that when he came, he wasn’t his usual self. He seemed to be in shock.”

Billy, a university student who had openly criticized the government on social media, He disappeared on December 21, 2024 while in a barbershop in Embu.

According to witnesses, hooded men arrived in a Toyota Fielder and a double-cab truck, pushed him into one of the vehicles and sped away.

Within hours, her family’s worst fears began to manifest.

“Most weekends we are together watching football. His club is Chelsea; mine is Arsenal,” Gerald said.

He called Billy to talk about a football game the night of his disappearance, only to find his son’s phone turned off.

The barbershop owner later informed him of the kidnapping, prompting a frantic search.

Billy’s mother collapsed when she heard the news and the weeks that followed were agonizing for the family.

As soon as they found him, they took Billy to the hospital for a routine checkup. His family says he is still recovering from the trauma, but his release has brought them some relief.

Like many who have resurfaced after alleged kidnappings, Billy has said little about his ordeal, perhaps out of fear.

Jamil and Aslam Longton also remained silent after being released in September after 32 days of captivity.

The brothers were warned, Jamil says, that they would be killed if they went to the media.

Three months later, a government official publicly referred to his case as a legal arrest.

The brothers took this as confirmation that a government agency was responsible for what they had been through and found the courage to speak out.

“The Kenyan Constitution is very clear,” says Jamil. “They must be arrested and brought to court within 24 hours. Ours was 32 days. They never gave us a lawyer to represent us anywhere.

“We were not allowed to see or communicate with our family. So this is not an arrest, it is a kidnapping.”

The brothers told the BBC that Aslam had helped organize protests against tax increases in the town of Kitengela, near the capital Nairobi, and had been warned by security officials to end his activism.

One day in August, they were put in a car next to their house, hooded and handcuffed, and taken to an unknown location, where they were held in small dark cells.

Aslam says he was regularly beaten and his executioner demanded to know who was funding the protests.

“I was very scared,” he says. “When the door opened, this man came with a fiber cable and a metal rod.

“I was afraid that he had come to hit me or finish me; there were only two options: hit me or kill me.”

Jamil describes his kidnappers as heavily armed, able to track their mobile phones and confident enough to detect them in broad daylight, operating with a level of resources and a degree of flexibility that human rights groups have reported in many cases. .

But this does not mean that they are official security agents, says government spokesman Isaac Mwaura, denying that the State is behind the kidnappings.

“Organized security can also be part of organized crime,” he told the BBC.

“It could also be due to political reasons… Our political detractors have really criticized this issue. In fact, they use it only to settle political scores.”

Mwaura declined to comment on The case of government minister Justin Muturione of the most damning allegations against Kenya’s security agencies.

Muturi says his son was detained by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and only released after he made a direct appeal to President William Ruto.

“That is a matter of investigation, because that is their version of events,” Mr. Mwaura said. “But what is the counterhistory of the National Intelligence Service?

“I want to say categorically that the President of the Republic of Kenya, who is the head of government, has not authorized any form of kidnapping because he is a man who believes in the rule of law.”

Indeed, Ruto has publicly promised to stop the kidnappings, forced to respond to public outrage and concern from Western allies.

Many are concerned that the seemingly systematic disappearance of anti-government activists has resurfaced in this way, reminiscent of similar methods under the authoritarian leadership of Daniel arap Moi in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gitobu Imanyara, a journalist and activist who campaigned for multi-party politics in the early 1990s, was arrested and beaten by the Moi regime. He has no doubt that he is now seeing “Moi’s playbook” in action.

But, he says, times have changed. Constitutional amendments have established more accountability mechanisms and “there is a larger segment of Kenyan society that will not be intimidated.”

“The democratic space has expanded so much that the government cannot suppress democratic voices of dissent,” he told the BBC.

Plus, with social media, “word spreads almost instantly,” he said.

“They can’t censor us like they censored us in those days when we could only use landlines.”

Reports of disappearances have decreased in recent weeks.

But despite the announcement of police investigations, no one has been charged, much less convicted, for carrying them out.

Several advocacy groups have asked the attorney general to have kidnapping cases referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As for the families of those still missing, the nightmare continues.

“We are very depressed, very devastated,” says Stacey Mutua, sister of Steve Mbisi, one of the seven missing in December.

“We hope they will release him. (Most) of those kidnapped were released, but he is still missing. We pray that he will be found.”