NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 9 — A man who was reported to have been forcibly kidnapped by unknown people in Lamu in June 2021 has finally been reunited with his family after more than 11 months in captivity, HAKI Africa has said.
The family and civil society groups had blamed Yasir Mahmoud Ahmed’s disappearance to security agencies.
“HAKI Africa has received confirmation that Yasir Mahmoud Ahmed who was forcefully disappeared in 2021 in Lamu has been returned and is presently safe on Mombasa with family members. We received a call this morning from the family to confirm his return and to appreciate HAKI Africa for their efforts in helping to find him,” read a statement from HAKI Africa, a Mombasa-based civil society organization.
While announcing Ahmed’s reunion with his family, the lobby called on the security agencies to produce all the missing persons in the country for the sake of justice.
“HAKI Africa is calling for the return of all persons who have been forcefully disappeared,” they added.
In April 2021, Missing Voices, a consortium of fifteen Civil society organizations, came out with a report indicating that there are many cases of enforced disappearances across the country than initially thought.
In 2021 alone, the human rights bodies documented 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances.
“Out of these, 187 cases were of police killings, and 32 of enforced disappearances. Of the 32 cases of enforced disappearances, two of the victims were later found alive after campaigns by civil society organizations,” Missing Voices said.
Originally, there were 36 cases of enforced disappearances; four of these were found dead more than 24 hours after disappearing in police custody, two were returned alive and 30 remain missing.
According to Missing Voices, 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances resulted from 161 separate incidents.
They singled out the Pangani Police Station of the infamous Pangani Six as the station with the highest number of disappearances that ended up with victims found murdered.
The civil society groups documented 30 cases of police killings reportedly associated with Pangani Police Station.
“In 2021, every month, with the exception of June, officers from Pangani are accused of murder. For the last three years, during which Missing Voices has actively tracked the data, police have killed more than 500 people,” the report said.
In 2019, Missing Voice documented 145 cases of police killings. 168 people were killed or disappeared in police custody in 2020.
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