NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – Lawyers are set to hold countrywide peaceful demonstrations on Wednesday to protest the abduction of an advocate who still missing alongside his client.
Lawyer Wilson Nandwa and his client Elgiva Bwire were last seen in October month and are believed to have been taken away by police. Nandwa is said to have gone to report his client’s disappearance when he also went missing.
According to the Law Society of Kenya, the demonstration under the “Purple Ribbon Campaign Week” are meant to speak against enforced disappearances.
In a statement, LSK Chief Executive Officer Mercy Wambua said lawyers will live in fear if such enforced disappearances continue.
“Colleagues as you are aware; this is not the first case where an advocate has mysteriously disappeared in the course of their duty. This scenario represents an existential threat to the ability of advocates to offer services to their clients in an environment that is devoid of intimidation, threats, harm, or even loss of life,” she said.
LSK said it has also organized other activities during the week that are set to continue until Friday.
The High Court on Friday issued an order to Safaricom to produce call logs of lawyer Nandwa, who disappeared last month in Nairobi’s city centre.
The lawyer and Muslim scholar disappeared, hours after his client, ex-terror convict Elgiva Bwire also went missing following an abduction.
LSK informed court that the call data will enable them to trace the movement of the missing lawyer before he disappeared and shed light as to who may be holding him and his client.
In 2016, lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and a taxi driver went missing after ‘arrest’ by police before their bodies were found dumped in a river.
Four police officers and a civilian are facing murder charges over the killings that sparked outrage in the country and placed the National Police Service under sharp focus for violating human rights.
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