A year of silence for kin missing their loved ones

Chairman Kikao Lavani Mila ,Missing voices network member Odhiambo Ojiro and Vice Chair Kikao Shakira Wafula during a Media briefing on abductions and call for protest by Kikao organisation and civil rights activists in Nairobi on 27th December 2024. [David Gichuru, Standard] A year has passed since streets of Nairobi and other towns were filled with chants of Gen Z protesters challenging the Finance Bill 2024. But as the dust settled, in the aftermath of the protests, dozens of Kenyans were forcefully disappeared, abducted by masked men, believed to be security officers. Twelve months later, several families remain trapped in an unending nightmare of silence, uncertainty and anguish. Despite the assurance of President William Ruto in May this year, that all those who were abducted have been returned to their families, loved ones continue to search, grieve, and wait. "All the people who were disappeared or abducted, all of them have been brought back to their families and I have given clarity and firm instructions that nothing of that kind of nature should happen again," President Ruto said during a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. That claim, however, is at odds with the painful lived reality of dozens of families. Their stories, filled with heartbreak and resilience, tell a different tale, where justice remains elusive. Daniel Kabusho, a 38-year-old taxi driver, was picked up on June 18, 2024, along Kenyatta Road by masked men in a double cab. He has not been seen or heard ever since. Joyce Wanjiru, the wife, said she reported the case at Kays Police Station and was told investigations are ongoing. Up to today, almost a year later, she says, nothing has come out of it. Kabusho left behind three children. His youngest was barely an infant at the time of the abduction. Wanjiru, who was jobless then and caring for the child, had to take up her husband's taxi work to sustain the family."Life has been tough. My children often ask where their father is. I always tell them, dad will come back one day. We have searched for him everywhere including police stations, hospitals, morgues. But we have not found him," Wanjiru told The Standard. On June 25, when mass protests erupted in the capital, Emmanuel Kamau, 24, vanished around Imenti House in the CBD. "We have looked for him everywhere. The experience has been devastating. My mum especially, she does not have peace anymore," says Hannah Njeri, his sister. Kamau, who lived with the family in Kasarani, the sister says, was known for his vibrant energy and determination. "Every time we talk as a family, in one way or the other, Kamau comes up in the conversation. We just want him back. Alive or dead, we just want to have him home," said Njeri.Peter Macharia, 29, also went missing on June 25, during the protests. What followed was a downward spiral that upended the entire life of Alice Wambui, his mother. Wambui, who was a caretaker at Jamhuri Estate, where she also lived with her seven children, was fired in the process of looking for her son. She was forced to move to Kibera with her remaining children. According to Wambui, she now lives in a tiny, dimly lit shack. "At first, I thought he had just gone to clear his head. But days passed. Then we went to the mortuary. I prayed not to find him there. And he was not. But that only made things worse because it meant we still did not know where he was," she said. According to a report by Missing Voices, a coalition of human rights organisations, Kenya recorded 55 cases of enforced disappearances in 2024, marking the highest number in the recent history. Of these, 15 occurred in June alone, at the height of the Gen Z protests. Nairobi accounted for the highest number of cases with 18 incidents. The report noted that the victims were overwhelmingly young men, although women also featured among the disappeared. The report paints a troubling picture of state accountability. Of the 55 cases, only 4 are under active investigation, another 4 are in court, 31 have no ongoing investigations and 15 remain in total limbo, with no clarity on status. Disturbingly, 45 of the disappearances, the report states, were linked to police. Many abductions were carried out by hooded men in plain clothes, often in full view of the public. Vehicles used were unmarked or had non-local number plates. Civil society groups have been unrelenting in their criticism of the silence of government. Amnesty International Kenya, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, and HAKI Africa called for independent investigations and urgent policy reforms to end extrajudicial practices. Their demands include accountability, transparency, and an end to the use of abduction as a tool of silencing dissent. The champions of human rights in the country raised critical questions about state accountability and the widening gap between constitutional promises and the lived reality of its citizens in Kenya. "The Constitution promises everyone the necessities of life, human dignity, social justice and a legal framework for the protection of everyone's rights. Yet despite this legal protection, state actors have consistently violated these aspirations with impunity," noted Kamau Ngugi, Executive Director of Defenders Coalition. Ngugi described enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings as systemic problems entrenched in Kenya's security sector, worsened by a political culture that punishes dissent. He noted that in 2024, when youth peacefully protested corruption, bad governance and a soaring cost of living, the state responded not with reforms but with force. "This is a tragic irony where the government whose duty is to protect its citizens turned around and deployed batons, boots and bullets. Advocacy against this vice has become dangerous. Human rights defenders are now targets for reprisals," he said. Eric Mukoya, the Executive Director of the International Commission of Jurists Kenya, said the use of state power to silence citizens is a moral failure that must be addressed. "We must consistently push the state to desist from enforced disappearances and gloating over extrajudicial killings as if their delegated instruments of power are too blunt to stop this culture of impunity. Every voice counts, and so does every life," said Mukoya. Davis Malombe, Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, pointed out the contradiction between Kenya Kwanza's campaign promises and the lived experiences of protesters. "What, then, can be said of a country where those entrusted with upholding human rights become the perpetrators of the injustices they are meant to prevent?" asked Malombe.

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