Wajir MCAs have suspended county assembly operations to express solidarity with a colleague who was abducted in Nairobi last week.
County assembly speaker Abdilleh Yussuf told reporters they would only resume business once they trace Dela MCA Yussuf Ahmed 'Tolfiyow'.
Unknown people alighted from two unmarked vehicles that intercepted a cab carrying Yussuf, pulled him out and whisked him away in an incident that took place along Enterprise Road in Nairobi last Friday at about 8 pm
"All MCAs from Garissa are here in Nairobi looking for him. We are apprehensive about his safety and no activities are happening at the county assembly until we find Hon Hussein," speaker Yussuf told reporters at the Milimani law courts in Nairobi.
The MCAs and family members filed a case at the High Court in Nairobi seeking orders to compel acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli and DCI Mohamed Amin to produce the abducted ward rep in any court of law.
Hussein's cousin Abdikadir Ahmed who applied to lawyer Danstan Omari said the whereabouts of their kin remain unknown and unaccounted for, and there is a reasonable fear that he may have been abducted by officers attached to the National Police Service.
"Unless this court intervenes and compels the respondents to produce Hussein, we will continue to live with anxiety and stress caused by the forced disappearance and abduction of our loved one," Ahmed said in his affidavits.
Hussein was allegedly abducted on his way to South C . During the attack, the abductors also seized the taxi driver's phone to forestall communication. The phone accidentally fell inside the taxi in the heat of the commotion and was later recovered by the driver.
Ahmed said both the acting IG and the DCI have refused to allow his family to visit Hussein in custody and at the same time refused to present him before a court of law to answer to any charges.
He said nobody has accounted for Yussuf's whereabouts despite them reporting the matter twice to the police.
"The taxi driver has sworn an affidavit and said he reported the incident and obtained an OB as to what he saw on the said date that evening," Ahmed said.
At a press conference outside the Milimani law courts after the case was filed, Speaker Yussuf led over 30 MCAs from Wajir, Garissa and Mandera who were standing in solidarity with their missing colleague to demand his immediate release.
"The issue of enforced disappearance and abduction of people from the larger Northeastern has become a menace. Only three weeks ago, two people disappeared and they have never been seen to date. Now is it our colleague? We are asking the authorities to release him," Yussuf said.
"This is a serious matter because Hon Hussein is not just any other resident of Wajir. He is an elected MCA, a representative of the people. We are asking the police to produce Hon Hussein," deputy speaker Abdisalan Mohamed said.
