Families recount last moments of missing persons

Mandera residents exhume Isnina Musa's grave at Neboi cemetery. The digging up of alleged graves started on December 8, 2015 after a Mandera Court allowed the police to exhume her body Musa for a postmortem examination. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Isnina ran a tea kiosk in Mandera town. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery says she was a former Al-Shabaab cook who had crossed from Somalia.
  • Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, Mandera West MP Mohamud Mohamed his Lafey counterpart Isaack Shabaab, Mandera East MP Abdulaziz Farah and the county woman representative Fathia Mahbub led locals with shovels and hoes in digging for the bodies at Neboi cemetery.
  • From the first point identified by the members of public and marked by security officers by placing a numbered white paper on the spot, no single borne was found except a tattered piece of cloth on the ground next to Mrs Musa’s shallow grave.
  • Mandera Governor Ali Roba said as leaders they have encouraged the community to report any missing persons to the police.
  • Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) Vice-Chairman George Morara said the country is being militarised.

On Tuesday a search party that included security officials, Mandera Governor Ali Roba, Senator Billow Kerrow and other leaders braved the sun as diggers searched for bodies amidst talk of elusive mass graves. Reporter MANASE OTSIALO saw it all.

The search for missing people in Mandera town had nearly ended on Tuesday when word spread that a mass grave had been discovered.

Reports of existence of mass grave at Lathe saw families whose members had disappeared trek to the site in the hope of seeing the bodies of their loved ones.

Others hired matatus to witness excavation of the alleged mass grave after the court allowed the exhumation of any remains that might have been buried in the area.

Among them was a distraught Mr Abdullahi Kusow who has been searching for his missing brother.

Mr Kussow told The Nation his brother, Issack Kusow Mohamed alias Alihinto, a taxi driver in Mandera town, was picked by unknown people, hours after leaving his home on December 1.

“My brother left his house at around 9am. A few minutes later, he called our mother and asked that we take care of his two children as he had picked by unidentified people,” said Mr Kussow.

He reported the disappearance of his brother at Mandera Police Station and officers promised to investigate it.

“We went back to inquire from the police but nothing was forthcoming, forcing us to search for him everywhere in Mandera. We are yet to find him,” he says.

Mr Kussow said his 38-year-old brother had never crossed the border to Somalia ruling out a possibility of him having been abducted by the Al-Shabaab militants.

“We received information from herdsmen that uniformed men were digging a pit here on Saturday. We rushed here hoping to find his body but discovered the body of Isnina Musa who had been picked by the same people on December 3,” recounts Mr Kussow.

Isnina ran a tea kiosk in Mandera town. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery says she was a former Al-Shabaab cook who had crossed from Somalia.

Isnina’s acquaintances and who requested not be named claimed she was picked up during the day by men in two Proboxes who were suspected to be security men, only for her body to be discovered buried in a shallow grave.

“We were asked to lie down as they took her into one of the Probox before speeding off towards the military camp,” said a business associate of the late Isnina.

At Lathe, the scene of the suspected mass grave, I met a pensive Mohamednur Ibrahim and his mother Fatuma Yussum.

CLAIMS DISMISSED

They were there in search of their brother and son Abdiwelle Ibrahim Sheikh whom they said went missing on April 23, 2015.

Fatuma recalled seeing a white Toyota Probox approach her homestead at Bula Central in Mandera town at around 2pm.

She said three men alighted and went into her house handcuffed her son and sped away with him.

“My son was sleeping in the room. I asked them whom they were but they pushed me into the house and locked me in. When the door was opened by children who were playing outside, I found that the abductors were gone,” said Mrs Yussum.

She says she reported the matter to the police on the same day and on the following day the OCS told her that his officers were not involved in the arrest and that there was nothing he could do.

“I have been getting rumours that my son is in Nairobi with military officers but I have no one to confirm this for me,” she says.

Back in Mandera town, Mrs Hawa Ibrahim said her son was arrested on April 18 and died of police torture two days later.

“It was around 6.30 pm when my son Hassan Mohamed called me informing that he had been arrested by Police reservists. I went to the police station the following day to seek his release but the OCS asked me whether my son was a terrorist. He asked me if I was aware that my son had stoned a police a vehicle,” Mrs Ibrahim says.

She continues: “On April 20, he was released on a cash bail of Sh4, 000. He was in great pain and I took him to Mandera District hospital where I was referred to a private hospital for scans. He later died after the scanning.”

She says her son had told of how he had been tortured by the police to admit that he was a terrorist.

A family member of Mr Adan Mahat, an Al-Shabaab adherent who had surrendered to government after denouncing his loyalty, said he was picked on June 16 while having lunch at his house in Mandera town.

“Three vehicles came here and about 10 men alighted and confronted Mahat before handcuffing him. He was bundled into one of the vehicles,” said the relative who wished not to be named for his own safety.

NO BODIES FOUND
On June 17, the family reported the matter at Mandera police station and were issued with OB number 15/17/6/2015, which they still hold to date.

However, the police denied involvement in the arrest or having him in their custody, according to this relative.

He said in August, the family sought the services of Gitobu Imanyara Advocates who filed a habeas corpus (a written order by a court ordering compliance) application seeking to have the government produce Mr Mahat.

His whereabouts are still unknown as the Attorney-General kept on seeking for time to investigate the matter before reporting back to the court.

The relative said the clan Elders had written to the Chairman Mandera Security Committee on December 17, 2012 requesting the government to grant Mr Mahat amnesty as he pledged to lead a normal life.

However, no more bodies were found “since Sunday."

The digging up of alleged graves started on Tuesday morning a few hours after a Mandera Court allowed the police to exhume the body of Isnina Musa, which was buried on Sunday, for a postmortem examination.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, Mandera West MP Mohamud Mohamed his Lafey counterpart Isaack Shabaab, Mandera East MP Abdulaziz Farah and the county woman representative Fathia Mahbub led locals with shovels and hoes in digging for the bodies at Neboi cemetery.

The search for the bodies took the locally-sourced diggers almost two hours to complete as the police led by Mandera County Commander Job Boronjo provided security, saw exhumation of already decomposing body of Mrs Musa, 29 and a mother of five.

The locals and other leaders backed by security personnel later proceeded to the alleged mass grave at Lathe, 42 kilometres from Mandera town.

At Lathe, 12 spots were marked and carefully dug out by the volunteer undertakers.

This is where the body of Mrs Musa was discovered on Sunday and those who collected it raised the alarm of there being a mass grave.

From the first point identified by the members of public and marked by security officers by placing a numbered white paper on the spot, no single borne was found except a tattered piece of cloth on the ground next to Mrs Musa’s shallow grave.

After hours of digging up the site of the alleged mass grave, Mandera West M, Mohamud Mohamed announced that the team was encountering lots of problems and needed to get excavators to complete the mission the following day.

He said they needed few people at the scene for there are signs of buried bodies that would be unearthed by the excavator that is able to turn the soil easily unlike the manpower.

THE GOVERNMENT’S VIEW
Speaking at the scene, Mandera County Commissioner Fredrick Shisia maintained that there were only two reported cases of missing persons and that an inquiry file had been opened for anybody who had lost relatives to report.

“We only found one body on Sunday and no any other body has been found at the alleged mass grave,” said Mr Shisia.

“We are happy for the Nairobi delegation to have come here today to help set the record straight and repaint the spoiled Mandera image through media that we have graves with more than twelve bodies,” said Mr Shisia.

He said the digging had been postponed to today (Wednesday) because the diggers complained the ground was hard and they needed a better machine for digging.

“We shall come back and after completing the exercise we will make public the findings together with the elected leaders and the government,” said Mr Shisia.

Mr Shisia said it was only through investigations that the truth shall be known because Mandera remained a porous border county with a possibility of killings being meted by Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia.

“We are less than seven kilometres from the porous border and we might think we are fighting an enemy from outside when he is within us, a challenge that shall be proved only through investigations,” said Mr Shisia.

He denied claims that police turned away individuals reporting cases of missing persons.

However, Mr Kerrow said many people had been reported missing in the county contrary to the county commissioner’s statement but the police never accepted the relatives’ statement.

“The problem here is that it’s very difficult for the police to accept even a statement of the person reporting the case,” said Mr. Kerrow.

Mr Shisia said the government had procedures of handling issues.

“We need as leaders to sensitize the electorate that put us in these positions that this country is theirs, the constitution is theirs, we operate within confines of the law and anybody doing anything outside the law is illegal and we have to work together to change things and put the image of Mandera positively on national calendar,” said Mr Shisia.

UPHOLD THE LAW
Mandera Governor Ali Roba said as leaders they have encouraged the community to report any missing persons to the police.

“I am aware of three missing persons in this town currently. Despite the public cooperating with police its disappointing to find out that more people are reported missing than before,” said Mr Roba.

He said as leaders, they have no problem with any suspects being picked only that due process of law has to be followed.

“There is an outcry. Every week we receive cases of someone missing but we can’t trace it because I have limits as governor but the public tells us that a person has been picked by security officers and we encourage them to make at least a formal complaint at the police station,” said Mr Roba.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) Vice-Chairman George Morara said the country is being militarised.

A recent preliminary report released by the KNCHR in September 2015 indicates 25 people have been killed through extra judicial executions and 81 others have disappeared from Mandera through dubious means.