The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Busia County Senator Okiya Omtatah have suffered a major setback after the High Court declined their request to compel security state agencies to produce missing persons who were said to have been abducted in December 2024 and January 2025.
In a ruling rendered by Justice Bahati Mwamuye on Thursday, April 10, 2025, the court declined to compel Inspector General (IG) Douglas Kanja and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Amin Mohamed to produce the missing persons alive or dead.
Justice Mwamuye stated that Senator Omtatah and the LSK did not provide enough evidence to prove that the eight missing persons were under police custody.
Further, he said that in the submitted affidavits by both parties, they did not validate their claims that the missing persons, some of whom were released early this year, were in police custody.
The petitioners had claimed that Gideon Kibet, Ronny Kiplagat, Steve Kavingo Mbisi, Billy Mwangi, Peter Muteti, Benard Kavuli, and Kelvin Muthoni were in police custody after they were abducted by armed men believed to be police officers.
“The petitioners did not establish that the seven individuals are in the custody of the respondents, nor did they satisfy the court that the seven, along with an eighth individual, are being illegally detained by either known or unknown persons,” Justice Mwamuye ruled.
LSK and Omtatah moved to court, urging the court to order the IG and the DCI to produce the eight said to have been abducted at different locations in Nairobi between December 16 and December 17, 2024, in court, alive or dead.
Senator Omtatah accused police of failing to protect Kenyans from abductors who were going after people criticising the current regime.
On the other side, the LSK were demanding the IG and DCI’s accountability over the said abductions, which triggered uproar across the country from different people and agencies condemning the abductions.
Earlier, on January 31, 2025, the petitioners, led by Njeru Ndwiga, urged the court to apply Article 23 and preserve the petitioners’ rights under Article 26 on the presumption that the two missing petitioners are still alive.
Alternatively, Njeru sought the court to issue fresh summons against the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to appear in court and answer the whereabouts of the two missing petitioners.
“In the alternative, your Lordship, the court does summon the IG and the DCI to come before this court again and answer just one question: Where are the petitioners? Are they alive or dead? What interventions have you done in that respect for the two who are still missing to date?” Lawyer Njeru told the court.
Additionally, Njeru asked the court to pronounce itself that it is not as desperate as the petitioners and that the respondents are not going to control the systems that work in this country to their favour, accusing the respondents of doing what they want in all aspects.
Njeru asked the judge to intervene and let the petitioner’s lawyers know the status of the two missing petitioners.
The judge, however, directed the main petition to be heard on Friday, April 10, 2025, at 11 am.
This is after several lawyers, including John Khaminwa, sought to have the case determined urgently.
The Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen, who has been sued over the spate of abductions in the country,, sought to have his name expunged from the case.
Through his lawyer, Danstan Omari, CS Murkomen urged the court to first deal with his application to have his name removed from the case, as he was not involved with the abductions and was wrongfully sued.
Justice Mwamuye directed that the CS application will be heard on Friday, April 11, 2025, in the morning alongside a similar plea by the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP).