How Eastleigh man went missing

What was a simple cup of tea at a restaurant in Eastleigh turned out to be a family's nightmare.

This is when their son, a manager with the E-Coach Bus Service, which plies the Garissa-Nairobi route, was picked up never to be seen again.

According to Human Rights Watch, Abdifatah Odowa Aden and some friends were at Kilimanjaro Hotel in Eastleigh, Nairobi, having tea in May 2014. Then he received an anonymous call asking him to immediately meet a group of people outside. He obliged and that proved to be a costly mistake.

A 20-year-old friend of his told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that he and his friends, including Abdifatah, walked out of the hotel, where they were confronted by three men in civilian clothes. The three were riding in a white car that turned out to be a taxi.

"The people asked him to get into the cab but he declined, demanding that they introduce themselves. They showed their service IDs and they turned out to be officers attached to the National Intelligence Service. He agreed to get into the car, convinced that these were genuine officers who would follow the law. Now we know that there is no law here," HRW said.

Abdifatah may have been suspected by the police of helping transport terrorists to Nairobi, a HRW report has shown.

"Friends who were with him at the hotel told HRW that some of them wanted to get into the cab along with Abdifatah, but the officers declined, saying Abdifatah was wanted for interrogation at Pangani police station and they could trace him at the station," HRW said.

The report further notes some of the friends hired a taxi and drove to Pangani police station, but they did not find Abdifatah or the officers who had arrested him.

"We looked for the taxi driver, since we had taken the registration number of the car. The cab driver later told us that the officers had switched to a different car and driven away with Abdifatah," the friends said.