Family suspect police’s hand in disappearance of city Mosque official
Yet another official of the Pumwani Riyadh Mosque has gone missing after he was picked by four men his family believes to be police officers in California estate, Nairobi.
Mr Abdul Karuri Mwangi, 35, was picked on July 1 as he was going to the Mosque. He has never been seen again, according to family members.
In 2011, a report by the United Nations cited Riyadh Mosque as a centre where youth were radicalised before being sent to fight in Somalia.
Ms Sofia Juma told Nairobi News that her husband was picked in California at around 1.30pm as he headed to the mosque.
The four men had parked their vehicle near Mpambe Restaurant where they led Mr Mwangi and drove away with him to unknown location.
LAST TIME SEEN
When he was arrested, Mr Mwangi attempted to give his phone to his cousin who was nearby, but one of the men grabbed the phone. That was the last time the father of two was seen.
The wife said that his phone has since been switched off and that they have reported his disappearance to all police stations in Nairobi.
He becomes the second official of the Mosque to disappear in the last few months.
On April 4, Dr Abdallah Iddi Waititu, a pharmacist in charge of the Kangundo Hospital, was also abducted by people believed to be security officers.
Three weeks after Dr Waititu disappeared, the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said that the security agencies had foiled a major a biological terror attack and arrested three suspects.
Among the arrested were a medical intern at the Wote Hospital Mr Mohammed Abdi Ali, his wife Ms Nuseiba Mohammed Haji who was a student at the Kampala International University, and her accomplice Ms Fatuma Mohammed Hanshi.
The group, police chief said, had planned a biological terror attack on April 29.
SECURITY AGENCIES
Human rights groups have linked the disappearances of the two to the security agencies.
Other reports indicate that another student, Mr Shukri Mohamed, a 24-year-old Moi university student, went missing the same day Dr Waititu was arrested.
His mutilated body was found in a river in Ol Donyo, Kiambu County, on April 8. His eyes were gouged out, his tongue cut out and limbs tied. The body was brought to the City Mortuary by unidentified police officers.
Another Somali returnee Athman Ahmed Salim, who is said to have taken advantage of the government’s amnesty call to denounce extremism and was under rehabilitation, has also disappeared.
Mr Salim, 23, a resident of Umoja in Nairobi, was kidnapped on March 20 as he was leaving a mosque with his children after late afternoon prayers. He has not been traced.