Wife pleads for return of abducted Lamu businessman

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For two weeks now, the wife and children of an abducted Lamu businessman have lived through anguish and uncertainty, desperately waiting for news of her husband and pleading with those holding him to bring him back home.

Hamdia Mohamud narrated how hooded gunmen brandished weapons at her and her children before forcefully taking away her husband, Mohamed Muse Mire, moments after he had returned from his shop.

“It’s been 14 days of anxiety, anguish and trauma for my family; the children are still distressed and we don’t know his whereabouts,” she told the Standard yesterday.

She said at the time, two teachers were helping some of her children with their remedial lessons at a corner of their sitting room, where her husband was also, after returning from his shop.

Moments after she joined her husband in the sitting room, her husband noticed some movement outside and alerted her, but before she stood to check, masked gunmen stormed in and pushed her to another room.

“They were holding guns to our faces and pushed me to another room; the two teachers and my children were ordered to lie under the table before they forcefully attacked my husband and took him away,” she tearfully narrated.

She explained that when her husband was struggling with the heavily armed men, one of his daughters grabbed one of the men, perhaps to help her father but was immediately thrown under the table.

Hamdia noted that it's been two weeks of pain and agony as her children are so much affected and traumatised by the events, appealing that they want nothing short of his return.

“As a family we have been affected so much by his disappearance, myself and some of the children do not sleep well and they keep on asking when their father will come back,” said the mother of nine.

Mohamed Muse Mire, a businessman in Witu, Lamu County, was abducted by unknown gunmen on 10th September by people believed to be security agencies.

Mire, who hails from Garissa’s Ijara constituency, has for more than a decade been in Lamu, becoming popular amongst locals. After his abduction, Lamu Governor Issa Timamy visited his family and demanded his unconditional release.

Both Lamu and Garissa County leaders, as well as human rights actors, have called for his release, calling that abduction and holding Kenyans without judicial process an affront to the Kenyan constitution.

His relatives who have been camping at his Witu home have called for his release, saying their kin have not been involved in any illegal business.

Chairman Garissa Human Rights Network Muktar Dahir Osman called for the release of Mire, saying abductions of citizens would undermine the fight against terror.

“It’s not possible to fight terror with terror; this fight can only be won when suspects are subjected to the rule of law. These actions are counterproductive,” he said.

The activist noted that the increasing cases of abduction in the country would risk the public losing trust in the security agencies, urging the security officials to do their work within the confines of the constitution.