Security chiefs to be held accountable for abductions, court declares

Who holds responsibility when a citizen is abducted? That is the question Justice Alexander Muteti sought to answer. In the judge's ruling, the court stated that the State cannot escape responsibility for missing persons by simply denying holding them in custody.

Justice Muteti found the state agencies have a case to answer over the whereabouts of lawyer Abshir Ahmedsadak Abdi.

The judge directed that a habeas corpus application filed by Abdi's brother proceed to a substantive hearing.

Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, his PS Raymond Omollo, Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and DCI Director Mohamed Amin are now under renewed scrutiny over the State's failure to account for Abdi, 10 days after his disappearance.

The judge said the constitutional responsibilities vested in the police leadership and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations require them to account for incidents involving missing persons, particularly where allegations point to possible involvement of security agencies.

"The institutions that are charged with the responsibility of securing Kenyans and their property cannot escape responsibility whenever a person is missing, and they return to say we do not have him in our custody," Justice Muteti ruled.

The decision is a significant development in the search for Abdi, whose family claims he was abducted by armed men on November 1, 2026, after his vehicle was pursued along Muchai Road in Nairobi.

But the case is now threatening to become a major test of accountability for the country's security establishment, with the Law Society of Kenya seeking to bring Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo, the IG and DCI boss before the court to explain what they know about the disappearance of the lawyer.

LSK President Charles Kanjama told Justice Muteti that the society intends to seek summons against the senior officials, including the Director-General of the National Intelligence Service  Noordin Haji, the head of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau and officers from the security agencies named in the proceedings.

Kanjama said the officials possess crucial information that could help the court establish what happened to Abdi, who was allegedly seized by armed men and bundled into a waiting vehicle before his whereabouts became unknown.

The LSK president said the society had consulted other civil society organisations and made efforts to reach the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) over the preceding 24 hours as concern mounted over the growing number of enforced disappearances.

"We have held meetings with other organisations in the civil society space and we have made efforts to reach IPOA over the last 24 hours. The statistics available are that 22 enforced disappearances have been recorded in this year 2026," Kanjama told the court.

He said the figure, documented by the Missing Voices Coalition, pointed to growing impunity and an attack on the country's constitutional framework.

Kanjama argued that families and applicants seeking justice in disappearance cases face a significant disadvantage because they lack the investigative machinery available to the State.

"An applicant faces a disadvantage against the State if they were to rely on evidence that they have to produce on their own. The State has the monopoly of investigating ability and has the power to pursue these matters," he submitted.

He warned that there were indications of rogue elements within security agencies being involved in abductions and other unlawful acts, making it necessary for the court to compel senior officials to provide information.

"And indicators are that there are rogue elements within security services who are involved in abductions and other matters," Kanjama said.

The LSK president said the society would first allow Abdi's brother to testify and lay a foundation for the additional summons before seeking to have the senior security officials appear.

"We would like to give notice to the court that after the applicants give evidence, we will need to summon the officers of the security forces to appear and testify over the whereabouts of the abducted lawyer," he said.

Among those the society intends to summon are Murkomen, Omollo, Kanja, DCI Director Mohamed Amin, the Director-General of the NIS Haji, the head of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau and officers from the Directorate of Military Intelligence identified in the proceedings.

Kanjama said the officials should be required to provide material information relating to Abdi's disappearance and the circumstances surrounding his previous encounters with security agencies.

In an emotional intervention, Embakasi East MP and lawyer Babu Owino told Justice Muteti that he was also a victim of abduction and unlawful detention, recounting how he disappeared for three days after being seized in July 2023.

Owino said his experience demonstrated why courts must intervene when individuals are taken by people believed to be security officers and their whereabouts concealed.

"I was abducted on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, and am a beneficiary of this habeas corpus. I was helped by my lawyers, former LSK boss Eric Theuri and Ndegwa Njiru, who came to Wang'uru," Owino told the court.

The legislator said he was held for three working days without his family knowing where he was.

"I was abducted and disappeared for three working days. And were it not for the court today, I would be a non-living thing," he said.

His family and lawyers frantically searched for him before tracing him to Wang'uru Police Station in Mwea, Kirinyaga County.

"You can imagine the pain the family of lawyer Abdi and us lawyers in the country were going through because of his forced disappearance. That we are not safe; right now we can not represent clients who seem to be high and mighty in the society," the MP said.

“What we are seeking here today is the complete opposite: persons vested with the responsibility of protecting lives are the very same people being accused of taking lives in violation of the Constitution. It is now this court that can protect Kenyans,” Babu Owino said.

Justice Muteti's ruling also brought back memories of the abduction and murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.

The three were abducted in June 2016 after leaving the Mavoko Law Courts, where Kimani had represented Mwenda in a case involving a police officer accused of shooting him.

Their bodies were later recovered from the Ol Donyo Sabuk River, in a case that exposed the dangers faced by lawyers challenging police conduct.

Police officers involved in the crime were subsequently prosecuted and convicted, with former officer Frederick Leliman among those sentenced to death.

The judge cited the case of the rogue police officers led by Lemaiyan, which involved the kidnapping and murder of Kimani, to illustrate the State's capacity to investigate complex disappearances.

Justice Muteti said the State has technical, technological and logistical resources that ordinary families cannot access when trying to trace missing relatives.

He said the court must take into account this imbalance when dealing with applications involving enforced disappearances.

The judge also referred to the Philippines' adoption of the writ of amparo, a legal remedy developed to address cases where State agents allegedly abduct individuals, deny custody and conceal their whereabouts.

He said Kenya's courts should not adopt an approach that makes it impossible to hear a habeas corpus application unless the missing person is first physically produced.

"If the court was to find otherwise, I entertain no iota of doubt in my mind that if this court was to adopt the position that applications of this nature can only be heard upon the production of the body, none of the habeas corpus applications would ever see the light of day," he ruled.

The case of Lawyer Abdi is isolated since it comes barely two months after Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich was abducted by armed men along the Gilgil-Nakuru Highway in an incident that raised questions about the safety of journalists and alleged involvement of security personnel.

Kiprotich was seized on September 1, 2026, by four masked men armed with AK-47 rifles who were travelling in a Subaru fitted with a siren.

The abduction came barely two months after an earlier attempt to seize him in Nakuru in June, when armed men in a Toyota Probox allegedly tried to intercept his vehicle as he drove to work.

Among the cases that have resulted in court proceedings or demands for senior security officials to account for missing people are the June events, where three men, Macmillan Kiarie Mugo, Michael Oloo Osoro and Evans Otieno Omondi, disappeared in separate incidents before the planned GenZ second anniversary protests after allegedly being picked up by armed men travelling in unmarked vehicles.

Oloo's wife told the High Court that her husband was seized from a barbershop in Umoja by three men who identified themselves as police officers, handcuffed him and forced him into a waiting vehicle.

Omondi was allegedly picked up from a shop in Ruai, while Mugo was reportedly bundled into a vehicle after leaving his home in Githurai.

The families moved to court seeking orders compelling the police to account for their whereabouts.

Justice Muteti subsequently summoned Kanja and Amin to appear personally and explain what had happened to the three men after the State maintained that they were not in police custody.

Again, six activists, Boniface Mulinge Muteti, Elisha Ochieng Alam, Collins Otieno, Fredrick Odhiambo Ojiro, Christine Alubengo and Michael Ngige, were reported missing after allegedly being arrested outside Parliament during the June 25, 2026, protests.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said the six had been bundled into a police truck and driven away without being booked at any police station.

They were later found after being dumped at different locations, with some sustaining injuries and reporting torture.

Another protester, Davis Lichuma, was also reported missing after the protests and was subsequently found alive.

On October 25, 2026, Tanzanian activist Twaha Mwaipaya was allegedly abducted in Kamulu by armed men travelling in a black double-cabin vehicle.

The incident prompted another habeas corpus application before Justice Muteti, who on October 30 ordered Kanja, Amin and the Ruai police boss to produce the activist, dead or alive, before court on November 2.

The judge also directed the security chiefs to produce the original detention warrant and explain why the activist should not be released immediately if he was being held.

The activist's whereabouts remained a subject of concern as the court proceedings continued after Kanja last week informed the court that he is not in police custody nor abducted or arrested by police officers.

The Nairobi lawyer went missing after his vehicle was allegedly pursued by armed men along Muchai Road on November 1.

His brother told the court that the vehicle was recovered abandoned in a ditch, with visible scratches and dents.

The family alleges that armed men in two vehicles pursued Abdi before forcibly taking him away.

The High Court subsequently ordered the IG, DCI Director and other security agencies to produce him, dead or alive, and account for his detention.

When State witnesses appeared, they denied that Abdi was in their custody, prompting the judge to direct a full hearing of the habeas corpus application.

In his ruling yesterday, Justice Muteti said the State cannot simply deny holding a missing person and expect the court to close the matter.

He observed that the right to habeas corpus is protected under Article 25 of the Constitution and cannot be limited.

The case seeking to establish the whereabouts of lawyer Abdi, will be heard today at 2pm.