NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 7 – At least 11 people are being held captive in separate incidences of a rising wave of abductions in Kenya.
Police released the shocking figure on Tuesday, revealing that criminals are demanding as much as Sh4 million for those they have kidnapped.
“We are investigating 11 new cases of abductions. Our officers are following very crucial leads and we hope to get the abductors and rescue the victims very soon,” Police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe said.
He spoke at the Buru Buru police station where thirteen suspects of kidnapping were paraded for identification.
Five of those paraded were described by police as vicious criminals who were wanted for a series of serious crimes committed in recent months.
“Our investigations have shown that the five are very dangerous people who had committed two murders and a series of violent robberies,” he said.
The suspects were arrested last Friday when police raided a residential house in Nairobi’s Dandora estate where a 15-year-old boy was rescued from kidnappers.
The kidnappers had demanded Sh1 million from the boys’ parents but no amount was paid.
Mr Kiraithe told reporters that detectives were yet to establish if the remaining eight suspects were directly involved in the boys’ abduction.
“Certainly, they are criminals but we are yet to find evidence linking them to their crimes,” he said and appealed to members of the public to volunteer and try to identify them.
Police believe the suspects may have played part directly or indirectly in the actual kidnapping or aided the kidnappers.
Latest victims of kidnapping include a primary school female teacher, her boyfriend and their Nigerian friend who were abducted on Friday night.
They were abducted on Jogoo Road near the City Stadium after picking up the Nigerian man from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
The girl’s father Joseph Odera Otieno who works with the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) in Moyale said the kidnappers have been demanding Sh350,000 but had scaled down to Sh 150,000 by Sunday afternoon.
“I have been negotiating with them (kidnappers) on telephone. They have been shifting goal posts. They even asked me to send them a deposit of Sh50,000 on Sunday,” Mr Otieno said.
He identified his abducted daughter as Moureen Achieng’, 24.
He could not immediately give the identities of the two men because: “I don’t know them but I understand one of them is a boyfriend to my daughter.”
According to Mr Otieno, his daughter who is a teacher at Sunshine Academy in Garissa was travelling to Kisii when she was abducted in Nairobi.
She arrived in Nairobi on Friday night and was supposed to connect a bus to Kisii but instead telephoned her father saying she wanted to sleep at a friend’s house before she proceeds to Kisii the following day.
“I did not object that because she is a grown up. Later, I received a telephone from her saying she had been abducted alongside two other people,” Mr Otieno said.
The Police Spokesman told Capital News they had assured the man his daughter and the two other people will be rescued just in time.
“We have told him not to worry because our officers are doing their best to capture the abductors and rescue the three people. That is exactly what we are doing to the other people who have been abducted,” Mr Kiraithe said.
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