‘He called me before they broke into his house’: Opiyo Wandayi narrates how Gabriel Oguda was 'abducted'

National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi says popular social commentator Gabriel Oguda called him early Tuesday morning before he was allegedly abducted from his house.

Oguda, who works as a political analyst at the minority leader’s office, is reported to have been taken away from his home around 2 a.m. by men suspected to be policemen.

His arrest has been linked to his vocal stance online against the unpopular Finance Bill 2024 which has sparked nationwide protests, now in their second week.

During a House sitting on Tuesday midmorning, Wandayi said Oguda called him at 2:20 a.m. to say that there were people he suspected to be police officers trying to break into his compound.

“He said there were cops at his gate trying to break into his compound. I tried to get lawyers to handle the situation but 10 minutes later, my phone calls were jammed,” the minority leader told the House.

“I was unable to make or receive phone calls until 6:30 a.m. They broke into his compound, broke his house’s door and abducted him. We do not know his whereabouts and don’t take it lightly.”

Wandayi said they searched for Oguda “in all police stations in Nairobi” but had not found him.

“We don’t know whether they killed him or if they are holding him incommunicado somewhere,” he said.

Majority Leader Kimani Ichungw’ah however told Wandayi to first contact the Inspector General of Police before they conclude that Oguda was abducted or kidnapped, and establish if the men who captured him were police officers.

“When this government took over power in 2022, President William Ruto stated that the days of kidnappings, abductions and extrajudicial killings are long gone. I assure Kenyans that it shall never happen in this country again,” said Ichungw’ah.

He nonetheless maintained that parliamentarians and parliamentary staff are not immune to the law, saying, “If myself and Opiyo run into problems with the law, it will take its course; we must be arrested and produced in court.”

Oguda is a vocal critic of President William Ruto’s government and reports of his abduction were shared alongside concerns that other people behind the X pages Franje, Drey Mwangi and Osama Otero, were also captured overnight.

Another anti-Finance Bill protester Shadrak Kiprono, alias Shad Khalif, was abducted on Saturday night in Nairobi’s South B area and as of Tuesday morning, his whereabouts were still unclear.

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) in a statement on Tuesday morning condemned the abductions as a return to darkness.

LSK President Faith Odhiambo vowed that the lawyers' body will bring those orchestrating the abductions to book.

"Over the last 72 hours, Kenya has been drawn back to the dark era of a rogue, irrational police force operating through repressive, retrogressive, clandestine, illegal, extra-judicial tactics to forcefully quell public dissent against misgivings of government, lapses in governance and more specifically, the contentious Finance Bill 2024," Odhiambo said.

"We will unmask and take action against these rogue criminal elements putting our police in ruin."

Two people have so far died from police-inflicted injuries since the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations began last Tuesday.

A nationwide strike dubbed #TotalShutdownKE is on Tuesday scheduled to take place across all counties, especially in Nairobi's central business district, to pressure parliamentarians to shoot down the bill this week.

The proposed law passed its Second Reading in the House last Tuesday after 204 MPs voted yes to the bill while 115 voted no. It enters the Committee Stage this week.