Family in agony after kin is abducted by unknown people
A family in Nairobi is desperate to establish the whereabouts of their brother who was abducted by unknown people three weeks ago around Donholm estate.
Thirty-two-year-old Saferio Ogola Lupia, who works as a tout on the Umoja route, was abducted by unidentified people from the Donholm bus stop at around 5 p.m on Thursday October 29 while waiting for his matatu to arrive from the CBD.
Mr Saferio’s family is appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or knows his whereabouts to help them find their kin.
Speaking to Nairobi News, Mr Saferio’s older brother Patrick Okumu Lupia said he received a call on Friday evening from his sister, who lives with his younger brother, asking him if he had seen Mr Saferio because he had not come home the previous day. It was unusual for him to spend the night elsewhere.
ARRESTED AND HAND-CUFFED
At this point, Mr Okumu called some of Mr Saferio’s colleagues to find out if they had seen him. That is when he was told that his brother was arrested by “three police officers” who hand-cuffed him and bundled him into a white Toyota Probox, whose registration had been partially concealed.
“We cannot even inform our mother because she is very sick and undergoing treatment in the US,” said Mr Okumu.
Witnesses, who include vendors and attendants at a nearby petrol station, said only the first three letters of the car registration “KCD” had not been concealed.
“We have been to more than 10 police stations and a number of police posts around Nairobi but the search for our kin has been futile,” Okumu added.
He continued; “We have also gone to Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenyatta and City mortuaries, Industrial Area Remand and all the places we thought he might have been taken, but his name or body has not been found anywhere.”
The family reported the matter to Buruburu Police Station on November 3, 2015 and were issued with OB No. 44/3/11/2015.
POLICE CONFIRM
Buruburu DCIO Henry Kiambati confirmed that the case had been reported and it was under investigation.
The investigating officer, Bob Odhiambo, told Nairobi News that four witnesses had already recorded statements.
“We are in the process of acquiring the CCTV footage along Jogoo road to see if we can identify the car,” added Mr Odhiambo.
When Nairobi News tried to inquire why the cameras were not working and if they had any backup for all their footage of that fateful day, the attendants said that their cameras did not capture anything on October 29 and 30.
CCTV CAMERAS
Mr Saferio disappeared on October 29. The investigating officer also said that they were told the footage had erased itself after the CCTV cameras developed a problem on that day.
The family wondered why the Outering Jogoo road petrol station cameras only malfunctioned on that day when the car, which Mr Saferio was thrown into, was packed there.
According to Mr Okumu, his brother had an altercation with an unknown woman at Hamza stage along Jogoo Road earlier on the fateful day.
He added that the 32-year-old, who had worked as a tout for more than 10 years, had never had any serious criminal record. The only time he has ever been arrested was for petty offences of touting.
He noted that his brother always left work early and went to train for football with other youths in Umoja every evening.