MOMBASA: A Mombasa-based Human Rights Group now wants the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to provide information on enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI) wrote a letter to the agency requesting information within 14 days. The information, according to MUHURI Director Khelef Khalifa, will be used in assisting victims to assess justice in competent tribunals or courts.
According to Kenya News Agency, MUHURI seeks to uncover the entities responsible for organizing criminal gangs involved in abductions, enforced disappearances, and extra-judicial killings. Khelef Khalifa questioned, “From whom do the gangs of perpetrators of the abductions, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings take orders, are the organized gangs state or non-state actors?”
MUHURI is also inquiring about the financiers and owners of the vehicles used in these activities, questioning whether they are government-owned or privately owned. Khalifa further asked, “Where are the secre
t detention places where abductees are held, are these gazette places of custody, who provides and runs the secret facilities and from what budget?”
Additionally, MUHURI is pressing the National Security Council to clarify its stance on these cases and to explain what prevents it from stopping these constitutionally violating crimes. “We are asking for accountability and responsibility,” stated the Executive Director.
MUHURI Executive Director Walid Kassim urged the government to take immediate action against the perpetrators, emphasizing the need for arrests and prosecutions to prevent these acts from continuing unchecked. He challenged NIS to explain how armed gangs conducting abductions in broad daylight manage to evade law enforcement agencies.