- This Thursday marks exactly one month since Longton Jamil (42), his brother Aslam Longton (36), and Bob Njagi, went missing in Kitengela on August 19, 2024.
- But like his interim predecessor, Kanja denied knowledge about their whereabouts and has appealed for public help in locating them.
Image: HANDOUT
Police have denied holding three people believed to have been abducted in Kitengela town last month.
In a joint press conference with DCI boss Mohamed Amin shortly after taking oath of office Thursday, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja sought public help in the search of the trio.
“You are aware that I have just taken over the office, but what I want to mention is that what I have gotten from our officers is that we don’t have the Kitengela three with us, but what I know is that a report was made and we have got an active investigation,” Kanja said at Jogoo House, Nairobi.
This, Thursday marks exactly one month since Longton Jamil (42), his brother Aslam Longton (36), and FreeKenya Movement coordinator, Bob Njagi, went missing in Kitengela on Monday, August 19, 2024, after being forcefully abducted by people believed to be police.
Reports indicated that the brothers went missing a few meters from their home, while Njagi was allegedly pulled out of a bus in Mlolongo and bundled into a Subaru by unknown people.
FreeKenya Movement believes Njagi’s abduction had something to do with his standing in solidarity with Jimi Wanjigi when the businessman was arrested and subsequently detained overnight at the Kamukunji police station.
The disappearance of the trio has been a pain for the National Police Service to the point of landing immediate former acting IG Gilbert Masengeli into hot soup.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi of the criminal court, Friday, last week handed him a six-month jail term for contempt of court after he failed to appear in court several times to explain their whereabouts.
Masengeli is in court battling to overturn the sentence, but with Kanja now in office, the burden of explaining to the courts where the three men are or who abducted them now lies squarely on his shoulders.
But like his interim predecessor, Kanja denied knowledge about their whereabouts and has appealed for public help in locating them.
“We are urging the people of Kenya, people of goodwill, anybody with any information can still be able to come forward and probably provide us with some more information,” he said.
Amin regretted that it’s unfortunate that the country has witnessed a lot of abductions; something he said was a serious criminal offence but denied that police have been involved.
He nonetheless said that they were working to ensure all cases of abduction reported to the police are investigated, the culprits taken to court, and the abduction victims returned safely to their loved ones in one piece.
“We have received a couple of complaints that certain people have been abducted, including the so-called Kitengela three. We have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that the matter is investigated, and it’s still under active investigation,” Amin said.
“So mine is to reiterate that as officers of the National Police Service, we are not holding the so-called Kitengela three. Any person that is arrested by officers of the National Police Service is taken to a gazette police cell,” the DCI boss added.
The police bosses spoke a day after the families of the missing men demanded that they be produced dead or alive, even as they remained hopeful that the abductees would be found alive.
"We heard our president say that he is not aware of any abductions. Let him know that our people have not yet been released," Jamil’s wife, Salwa Mohamed, told the Standard on Wednesday.
“I’m humbly appealing to our authorities to come out clearly and tell me where my husband is,"
President William Ruto has on numerous occasions denied that there are people who were abducted by state agencies, especially at the height of the Gen Z-led anti-government protests.
He challenged anyone with a missing loved one either during the protest period or anytime after he took office to present the name for investigations to be carried out.
“If there’s any family that their child or their friend or relative went to a demonstration, whether last year or this year and never came back, I want to know the names because I will take firm and decisive action,” Ruto said.
“As I talk to you today, I don’t have the name of somebody who has been abducted or disappeared,” he added while speaking during a town hall meeting in Kisumu on the night of Thursday, August 29, 2024.