– This year at least 60 Muslims aged between 17 and 40 have gone ‘missing’ in Kenya as victims’ families point fingers at security forces, accusing them of acting like ‘terrorists’
NAIROBI, Kenya – Abdel Nasser Nashu is grateful to be reunited with his wife and children.
The 38-year-old Kenyan-Arab businessman went missing for more than two weeks after four men in an unregistered vehicle abducted him near his home in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
“They forced me into the car. I shouted for help but they drew their guns and threatened to shoot me, saying they are police,” Nashu recalled the evening of June 30, 2015.
For days, the whereabouts of Nashu were unknown. His family moved from one police station to another in search of him, but in vain.
“I was interrogated for days on whether I had links with any terror groups. I was taken to different stations for three weeks, but was later released,” he told Anadolu Agency.
“[I] am thankful to God that I am alive, although I was tortured and was shaken by the experience,” he added.
Nashu has reason to be thankful and this he attributes partly to a social media campaign, dubbed #WhereIsNashu, that put into spotlight police’s alleged involvement in kidnappings and extrajudicial killings of terrorism suspects, who are mainly Muslim youth.
This year alone at least 60 Muslims aged between 17 to 40 years have been documented as “missing” in Kenya, according to an investigation by Anadolu Agency.
The most-affected regions were the Muslim-majority areas of Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Nairobi and Mombasa. With a population of 47 million, Kenya Muslims are estimated at about 11 million, according to the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims. They are mostly found at the Coastal strip and northeastern region near the Somalia border.
Records gathered by the Muslim Human Rights MUHURI Human show that missing persons were abducted by either the Anti-Terror Police, Kenya Defense Forces or the Kenya Wildlife Service officers. Reports by Amnesty International 2015 and Human Rights Watch 2014-2015 also highlighted the extrajudicial killings of Kenya Muslim youth and terror suspects by police.
“The records we have show the victims of extrajudicial killings range from high school students to clerics and university students to businessmen,” Abdirahman Issaq, an activist with the MUHURI human rights group, said after holding a demonstration against extrajudicial killings in the capital Nairobi last August.
At least six Muslim clerics perceived to be radicalized were also shot dead by such “unknown men” in similar situations in the past.
Another case in point is that of Tahliil Mahamed, who went missing in mid-August. Later, his body together with two of his friends were found floating on a river in the neighboring county of Muranga, causing an outcry among the Muslim population and human-rights activists.
His family and activists believe that they were the latest victims of extrajudicial killings by the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU). “Tahliil was a respectful boy. He went missing for a week from our home in Nairobi. He was last seen in a police Land Cruiser with two other boys,” Ahmed Aliyow, Mahamed’s brother, told Anadolu Agency.