Kenya’s kidnappings have sparked fears of a return to a dark past

The disappearance of more than 80 government critics in the past six months has sparked a massive public outcry in Kenya.

A judge has warned he will jail top security officials for contempt of court on Monday if they fail to appear for a third time on recent kidnapping charges.

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

At least 24 people are still reported to be missing.

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

Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanza and Director of Criminal Investigation Department Mohammad Amin were ordered to produce the seven missing social media influencers in court in December.

Five suddenly appeared in early January at various locations across the country.

Mr. Kanja’s lawyers sought more time from the court to record their statements and file a report.

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

Billy’s father Gerald Mwangi Karicha told the BBC his son was traumatised.

“The boy didn’t share much,” he said. “All I can say is that when he came in, he wasn’t his usual self. He was shocked.”

Billy, a college student who has been a vocal critic of the government on social media, 21 December 2024 Disappeared while at a barber shop in Embu.

According to witnesses, the hooded men arrived in a Toyota Fielder and a double-cabin pick-up, locked him in a car and sped away.

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

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

He called Billy to discuss a football match on the evening of his disappearance, only to find his son’s phone switched off.

The barbershop owner later informs him of the abduction, leading to a frantic search.

Billy’s mother was devastated by the news and the weeks that followed were harrowing for the family.

As soon as he was found, Billy was taken to the hospital for a routine check-up. His family says he is still recovering from the trauma, but his release has brought them some relief.

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

Jamil and Aslam Longton also remained silent after their release in September after 32 days of detention.

Jamil said the brothers were warned that they would be killed if they went to the media.

Three months later, a government official publicly referred to their case as a valid arrest.

The siblings made sure that a government agency was responsible for what they went through and had the courage to speak out.

“The Kenyan constitution is very clear,” Jamil said. “You should be arrested and taken to court within 24 hours. We had 32 days. We have not been given a lawyer to represent us anywhere.

“We weren’t allowed to see our family or contact our family. So it’s not an arrest, it’s an abduction.”

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

One day in August the two were taken to their home in a car, hooded and handcuffed to an unknown location where they were kept in small dark rooms.

Aslam said he was beaten regularly, with his tormentors demanding to know who was funding the protests.

“I was so scared,” she says. “When the door was opened that man would come with a fiber cable and a metal rod.

“I was afraid that he had come to kill me or finish me off – there were two options to kill me or to kill me.”

Jamil described their captors as heavily armed, able to track their mobile phones and confident enough to pick them up in broad daylight, acting with the same level of resourcefulness and flexibility that human rights groups have reported in many cases.

But that does not mean they are government security personnel, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said, adding that the state was behind the abductions.

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

“It could also be for political reasons… Our political opponents have really protested this issue. They actually run with it to settle political scores.”

Mr Mwaura declined to comment The case of Government Minister Justin MuturiOne of the most damning allegations of security agencies in Kenya

Muturi said his son was picked up by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and released only after he appealed directly to President William Ruto.

“It’s a matter of investigation, because that’s his side of the story,” Mr Mwaura said. “But what is the counter-narrative of the National Intelligence Service?

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

Indeed, Ruto has publicly pledged to end the kidnappings, forced to respond to public outrage and concern Western allies.

Recalling a similar approach under the authoritarian leadership of Daniel Arap Moi in the 1980s and 1990s, many are distressed that the apparently systematic disappearance of anti-government activists has thus resurfaced.

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

But, he says, times have changed. The constitutional amendment established more mechanisms of accountability and “there is a larger section of Kenyan society that will not be intimidated”.

“The democratic space has expanded so much that the government doesn’t want to shut out democratic voices of dissent,” he told the BBC.

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

“We can’t be censored the way we used to be censored in the days when we could only use landlines.”

Reports of disappearances have decreased in recent weeks.

But despite announcements of police investigations, no one has been charged, let alone convicted, of carrying them out.

Several advocacy groups have petitioned the Attorney General to refer kidnapping cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

For the families of those still missing, the nightmare continues.

“We are so sad, so devastated,” said Stacey Mutua, sister of Steve MBC, one of the seven who disappeared in December.

“We hope they will release him. (Most) of the kidnappers have been released, but he is still missing. We are praying he will be found.”