Is Kenya the new capital of abductions? Questions linger as HRW claims DCI-NIS squad responsible

Nairobi has seemingly become a hotbed of abductions for Kenyans and nationals from other countries mysteriously disappearing or being repatriated.
In the last quarter of last year, seven Kenyans, five of whom have since been released following pressure on authorities, were abducted with foreigners too not being spared.
All the victims of the abductions have a narration of being bundled into cars by hooded men who had been preying on them.
Questions remain unanswered on how the abductions conducted by the unknown men, some having guns and handcuffs, easily go under the radar of security agencies at the expense of Kenya’s global standing.
However, while releasing a report on the suffering of civilians in armed conflicts across East Africa today, Human Rights Commission said the abductions going on in Kenya are conducted by a special unit – Operations Support Unit- allegedly headed by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and controlled by the National Intelligence Security (NIS) Director General Noordin Haji.
By the time of going to broadcast, both DCI Director Amin Mohamed and NIS DG were not available for a rejoinder.
Africa Human Rights Watch Associate Director Otsieno Namwaya claimed the unit was formed almost immediately after the disbandment of Special Service Unit (SSU), which faced similar accusations under the Jubilee administration, and has been shooting to kill most of the time.
“An Operations action team was formed after the SSU was disbanded and we have all that information where DCI officers hooded and hiding their faces walk around abducting Kenyans. They are controlled by the NIS,” Otsieno stated.
This comes as lobby groups across the country have called for the resignation of Haji following serious allegations linking his agency to the abductions.
The Justice Alliance led by its convener Kennedy Omulo is the latest to express concern over the troubling rise in abductions and forced disappearances across the country, and the alleged involvement of NIS calling for the resignation of its boss.
Before being impeached from Office, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua also called for the resignation of Haji and held him accountable for the lives lost during the anti-government protests.
He claimed that NIS failed to adequately inform the president about the widespread opposition to the Finance Bill 2024.
The then Deputy President accused NIS of dysfunctionality and alleged their involvement in abducting youth protesters.
He described Haji as an incompetent civil servant who misled Ruto with incorrect intelligence briefs.
Since June last year during the Gen Z protests against punitive tax proposals in the Finance Bill 2024, which quickly turned into “Ruto Must Go” demos, a total of 82 people have faced abductions and enforced disappearances, according to reports by the Kenya National Human Commission for Human Rights Commission (KNHCR).
KNCHR says 26 Kenyans are still missing, and their whereabouts are not known while 31 were killed as of December last year.
While the DCI has maintained that they are investigating the multiple abductions and incidents of missing person cases, there has not been any update on identifying the kidnappers.
Delays and failure to arrest the wave of abductions have caused public uproar amidst calls by various groups for the resignation of top security bosses.
Foreigners fleeing repression in their countries or are critical of their home governments have also faced abductions in the country or arrested and deported.
An alarm was raised in July last year, when Kenyan authorities detained and then deported 36 people after they had traveled to Kisumu on July 23 to take part in a leadership and governance training course.
The 36 were members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), one of Uganda’s biggest opposition parties, and were charged in Uganda for the offense of traveling to Kenya “to provide or receive terrorist training”.
The safety of foreign citizens became more uncertain when four Turkish nationals residing in Kenya as refugees were abducted by armed men and repatriated.
In an attempt to quell the rising global condemnation, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said the repatriation was done in October at the request of the Turkish government.
“Kenya acceded to this request on the strength of the robust historical and strategic relations anchored on bilateral instruments between our respective countries,” Sing’oei said.
A month later, Kizza Besigye, Uganda’s prominent government critic, was abducted alongside his aide Hajj Obeid Lutale during a visit to Nairobi for Martha Karua’s book launch.
Besigye has faced charges relating to security and possession of firearms illegally after being taken to a Ugandan military jail where he was detained and is now facing trial. The pair were allegedly transported back to Uganda via the eastern border by persons whose identities have remained undisclosed.
Besigye’s abduction sparked rage in the capital as a battery of lawyers led by Karua headed to the Ugandan General Court Martial to represent him.
The dust had barely settled when Tanzanian activist and media editor Maria Sarungi Tsehai was abducted on Sunday, at Chaka Place, Nairobi, where she had gone to a hair salon.
She narrated that three men blocked her taxi some minutes past 3 p.m. and bundled her into a waiting Toyota Noah before driving her away.
She was released later in the evening after human rights groups such as Amnesty International Kenya and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) took up the matter.
“Thank you very much, dear Kenyans and Tanzanians. I am safe and God is good. I will say thank you properly tomorrow,” Tsehai said in a video recorded after her release.
She is a vocal critic of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu and often publishes critical articles on her blog and social media accounts.
Diplomatic erosion the foreign abductees seem to share a common denominator of criticising their Presidents and governments, a correspondence that has portrayed how international protocols are blatantly breached.
This has shown how Kenya operates under a degenerated diplomatic space of facilitating the return of foreigners to their oppressors.
Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif, 49, was shot dead at a roadblock outside Nairobi by police in October 2022, two months after he had sought safety in Kenya after fleeing Pakistan.
He had become a vocal critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022.
Police said the killing was a case of mistaken identity.
A court in Kajiado ordered the state to pay Arshad’s family Ksh.10 million after ruling the use of deadly force against the Pakistani journalist was “arbitrary, un-proportional, illegal and unconstitutional”
Members of President William Ruto’s government have also censured their boss over the incidents among them Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi who is still seeking answers over his son’s abduction.
Leslie Muturi was released after being reportedly kidnapped in June 2024 in Nairobi’s Lavington area.
“I have personally suffered as my son was abducted leaving my family in turmoil,” Muturi said speaking to the press on Sunday. Muturi noted that despite being the Attorney General at the time and having links to national intelligence, he had never received details behind Leslie’s abduction.
The matter exposes the decay that rests in the national intelligence as the current Attorney General, Dorcas Oduor, has remained tightlipped while her office is expected to play a significant role in addressing issues that threaten to cripple national security.