Active phone of missing university student haunts family

Isaac Musili has been missing since January 28, 2015.

Kenya: Isaac Musili, a final year student studying for a Bachelor’s degree in Education at Kenyatta University’s main campus has been missing since Sunday January 28, 2015.

At 7.30pm, his friend and roommate Joshua Munuve, also a student at the institution, called him to find out whether he would make it back to the pair’s room, an off-campus hostel located in Ruiru town, but Isaac said he would not.

“He said he was too drunk to come back to the hostel and that he would spend the night at the house of a relative he was visiting in Huruma, Nairobi,” says Munuve. The said relative, Geoffrey Mukala, says he parted ways with Isaac at about 5pm the same day.

Munuve’s call would be Isaac’s last communication to date. By the next day afternoon, Isaac had not shown up or communicated with anyone. Joshua received an automated message indicating that Isaac’s line had been switched back on. Earlier calls did not go through

When he called back, there was a strange voice at the end of the line, instructing him to dispatch Isaac’s ID and other official documents to Kariobangi Police Station where Isaac was being held.

Munuve narrates: “The man who received my call said he was a police officer at Kariobangi station and needed Isaac’s documents before he released him. He said Isaac was taken by the police after he was caught in a brawl during the night.”

Munuve reached Isaac’s relatives, among them, Eric Musili, Isaac’s elder brother.

According to Eric, a visit to the police station the next day was fruitless as the officers he talked to when he arrived said they did not have anyone by the name Isaac Musili in custody. They tracked Isaac’s number and advised Erick that the number appeared to be in use around Kamiti prison.

Determined, Eric visited Kamiti but even there the authorities said they had no prisoner by his brother’s name. He called one of his brother’s mobile lines (Isaac used two SIM cards) and spoke to the man who claimed to be a police officer at Kariobangi.

“He changed his story; saying that Isaac had been moved from Kariobangi to Embakasi police station. He asked to meet me there,” says Eric.

Briefly after that communication, Isaac’s line was switched off. Eric went to Embakasi where he was advised to report to Kasarani Police Station, which covers areas around Kenyatta University.

On January 29, 2015, Eric filed a missing person report with a CID officer at the station. The officer tracked Isaac’s number immediately and instantly informed Erick that the signal indicated the user was in Huruma. The following day the signal appeared in Baba Dogo.

The officer at Kasarani gave Eric his personal mobile number to call for follow-up.

It has been two months since Isaac’s case was formally reported to the CID. Despite numerous calls to the said CID officer at Kasarani, Eric says news about Isaac’s whereabouts has not been forthcoming.

There is no body or admission in hospital. Isaac’s parents and other family members ask authorities: “Why is the user of Isaac’s phone not in custody to give more information about their kin’s whereabouts?”

“All the officer tells me is that Safaricom is yet to release a printout of phone exchanges on any of Isaac’s lines. I am left wondering: How long does it take for the document to come out?”

Erick visited the telecommunications giant where a receptionist told him that the company releases data to CID officers promptly as long as a request has been made. For this reason, Erick believes somebody is lying to him while his brother’s life is at stake.

Erick says he approached Kenyatta University’s security office who told him to contact the police. In the meantime, the man with his brother’s line has been sending threatening messages to all members of Isaac’s family, asking for money, without which they should forget about ever seeing Isaac again.

If Isaac is alive, where is he? Who is holding him? If he is dead, why hasn’t his body been found? And who is the man using his SIM cards? What is his connection to the student’s disappearance? These are the questions Eric and the rest of Isaac’s kin are hoping to find answers for, in the hope that they will receive good news. Meanwhile, their days are filled with uncertainty.