Thursday, June 04, 2015
NAIROBI: Five Kenyans kidnapped by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Lamu last year are languishing in a Somalia jail as the Government claims it is not aware of the arrests.
The five were allegedly kidnapped by hooded gunmen on October 11 last year in Boni Forest as they headed to Kiunga, and driven into Somalia where they were held captive for two weeks before being set free.
They were, however, later arrested allegedly under the instructions of Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia. The five are Anwar Abdi, Ali Omar, Abdirahman Mohamed, Deeq Mohamed and Shukri Noor.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and Police Inspector General Joseph Boinett last week said they were not aware of the arrests. The five, who spoke to The Standard on phone from their incarceration in Kismayu, said they were in poor health with nothing to eat and urged the Government to secure their release.
They alleged that they had been surviving on a meal a day and were going for more than two weeks or even a month without a bath. Anwar Abdi is said to be in a different cell but often communicates with the four and this has left his wife Fatuma Hassan worried. Fatuma said she had not communicated with him since his abduction, but only learnt from the owner of the pick-up Abdi was driving that he had been arrested and held in Kismayu.
FIVE RE-ARRESTED Speaking from Kismayu, Abdirahman said: “We are suffering so much. We don’t know what is going on. Police officers here tell us they are waiting communication from Nairobi before they release us.” Abdulrahman, who spoke on behalf of the others on a borrowed phone from one of the police officers said when they were released by the militants, they asked for a police station and they were directed to an Amisom camp near Kismayu town which was under KDF.