If not the police, who is abducting Kenyan youth?

Questions continue to mount after Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja distanced the police force from the ongoing abductions in the nation despite reports that the state is involved in the cynical acts.

In a statement on Thursday, Kanja asserted that no police station in the country is currently holding the reported abductees.

“For clarity, the Constitutional mandate of the National Police Service is not to abduct, but arrest criminal offenders,” Kanja said.

Kanja further appealed to the public to refrain from "spreading false, fabricated, malicious, distasteful, misinformed and unverified information aimed at tarnishing the reputation and image of the National Police Service."

His response was prompted by a spate of abductions which have seen four young men missing. They are reported to have been abducted.

In the latest incident, cartoonist Kibet Bull, real name Gideon Kibet has been reported missing.

According to Kibet’s family, his brother Rony Kiplangat has also been missing since Saturday.

Bernard Kavuli, Peter Muteti and Billy Mwangi have also been reported missing and footage of them being taken forcefully was seen across media platforms.

The four cases however are just the tip of the iceberg, as the incidents have been witnessed since the wake of the anti-government protests in June.

An exclusive interview by Citizen TV revealed the ordeal of two brothers from Kitengela - Jamil Longton and Aslam Longton who went missing after protests on August 28. They were abducted outside their gate.

The duo shared how they were subjected to torture for thirty-two days in what they can only describe as torture chambers as Asmal said the rooms had been built with very thick card boxes.

“There was one short and heavily built person who came with a fibre cable and curtain rod that he used to beat me,” Jamil noted.

“We were given ugali, cabbage and 300mls of water. The water was to wash hands before and after eating, and to drink. We had a five-litre bottle that was cut at the top, it served as our toilet.”

They were threatened with severe ramifications if they revealed details of their harassment, maintaining they will not cower from narrating their traumatic experience.

“We are not afraid of saying the truth. They said they will kill us if we speak to the media. Only God knows our days,” Asmal says.

More Kenyans were abducted in a similar fashion by individuals wearing plain clothes aboard mostly unmarked cars and sometimes armed. Some abductees never got to narrate their ordeal and some have never been found.

It also raises more questions on why has there not been any probe on the said abductions since June to weed out the faces behind these abductions.

Security authorities and the abductees have never been presented to give witness statements or be prosecuted on the matter, begging the question why the state has opted to remain tight-lipped.

President William Ruto has even claimed that he has not been privy to any abductions, and that no security organ is aware of any abductions conducted in the months of nationwide protests.

"If there is a family, any family whose child or relative went to a demonstration and ever came back I want to know the names. I will take firm and decisive action because as I talk to you today I don't have a single name of somebody who has been abducted or disappeared," he said at a town hall meeting on August 30.

Shortly after taking power in 2022, President Ruto disbanded the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)'s Special Service Unit (SSU).

President Ruto noted that he directed the disbandment of the elite squad as part of his plan to address extra-judicial killings in the country.

Speaking on October 16, 2022, the Head of State said the police unit had become killers, instead of protectors of ordinary Kenyans.

"The country was very insecure. The police changed and became killers instead of protectors of ordinary Kenyans. I have ordered the disbandment of a Special Police unit that was killing Kenyans arbitrarily. We will change this country for the better," Ruto said.

Similarly, the abductions can be likened to the Nyayo House torture chambers during the late former President Daniel Arap Moi's rule.

With the police branch distancing itself, it begs the question of who then is behind the well-organised and precise abductions if at all it is not individuals with advanced intelligence machinery.

This machinery, amongst many other things, can provide access to a person's location by tracking mobile devices.

The abductees have mostly been abducted in specific locations across the nation, a clear indication that they have either been trailed or tracked down.

An example is the abduction of veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho who was abducted from the Karen Police Station where he had gone to seek help from the station after he was blocked by a private vehicle while leaving his home.

He said that upon driving into the Police Station, he realised that two cars followed behind and unknown men forced him into a waiting white probox.

The strange abductors, Gaitho continued, were demanding to know why he was resisting arrest but he defended himself saying "I don't know who you are, you have not identified yourselves".

"They drove me down Lang'ata road up to around the turning of Lang'ata south road where they stopped, made a few calls I don't know to who but I gathered they were talking to their superior," he said.

After prolonged conversations on the said call, Gaitho said that his abductors turned back towards Karen and stopped at a Shell petrol station located at the Karen shopping centre.

One abductor hopped out of the car and made a number of phone calls and minutes later asked for Gaitho's number which he refused to give out.

"After another long call they came back and the guy sitting behind was asked to remove my handcuffs then they told me it was a case of mistaken identity and that I am free to go," he added saying that they took him to the police station.

Gaitho believed that his abduction was tied to his work as a columnist for Daily Nation.

"I am not the first person to be abducted or to be arrested. It is clear that all these things are connected that police are operating outside the law and on this we must lay blame where it squarely lies. That is on the government of Kenya, director of DCI, National Police Service," he protested.

The abductors had handcuffs and had a communication chain of command which signified they served under a security authority.

Another instance is the abduction of a foreign national, Uganda's opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye who was kidnapped in an apartment along Riverside Drive in Nairobi on November 20 before being taken to a Ugandan military jail.

The incident which put Kenya on the spot for violating human rights raised questions on how would Besigye be forcefully apprehended and handed over to the Ugandan authorities in just under 24 hours without the knowledge of any police authorities.

Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Dr Korir Sing'Oei even said that the government is not involved and it had allegedly not been informed about his visit to Nairobi, making it difficult for local authorities to facilitate his trip and offer additional security.

But who is running the abduction paradise?