Mother’s grief for her missing children, weeks after rent fight

In the sprawling semi-formal settlement of Eastleigh in Nairobi County, a simple tenancy dispute has mutated into an ugly feud, with accusations of kidnap, murder and tribally-inspired revenge. 

Ms Rahama Alio Harrow has had a rough 2018. In January, she says her landlord, Mr Warsame Abdi Yussuf, ordered her out of the house she had occupied since November 2017, giving her just five minutes to pack up and go.

She resisted and fought him in court, winning an extension on the eviction. A month later, her two teenage daughters went missing, and two months after that her first-born son, in his 20s, also went missing, together with the family’s car, a dark grey Toyota Wish.

How did this happen and who is to blame? When landlord Yussuf attempted to evict Harrow, he cited non-payment of rent and termed her problematic.

Harrow, on the other hand, said she was singled out because she is Borana, while Yussuf wanted only his Somali kin to occupy the apartments.

RENT TRIBUNAL

The two argued their cases at the Rent Restriction Tribunal in Nairobi and Harrow was awarded an extension. The court said she should vacate the premises on June 30, this year.

The matter would have ended there but a week later Harrow’s teenage daughters — Mulki Abdullahi, 17, and Imran Abdullahi, 14 — went missing.

Harrow says Mulki and Imran were kidnapped from her house by a knife-wielding gang that bundled them into a Pajero vehicle and drove off. She says the two have not been seen again, and adds that the gang is the infamous Super Power that wreaks havoc on Eastleigh and the neighbouring estates.

Super Power is reportedly infamous for unprovoked killings and abductions.

“On coming home and finding my children missing, I looking for them everywhere. I have been to hospitals, mortuaries and prisons. I have even travelled upcountry to Mandera, Isiolo and Moyale in case the girls travelled there to visit relatives, but I came back empty handed. That is when I decided to report the matter to the police,” says the single mother of seven.

PANGANI POLICE STATION

She reported the incident at Pangani Police Station on March 29 and was given an OB (occurrence book) number. But she says the police were slow to investigate the matter.

After two months, she went to Vigilance House to seek answers. She made an official complaint against the Officer Commanding Station at Pangani, accusing him of letting the case go cold.

In a referral letter seen by the Nation, Harrow is instructed to go back to Pangani Police Station for investigation. The matter was booked at Vigilance House under reference number 72/23/05/2018, and the complaint is: “inaction against a report case of missing children vide OB 057/29/03/2018. Kindly assist to establish the truth”.

But according to Harrow, this letter from the police headquarters only exacerbated the matter. The day she delivered the letter to the Pangani OCS, she says, the landlord instructed his caretaker to lock her out of the house again, in defiance of the rent tribunal ruling.

BIG PADLOCK

“I got back home to find a big padlock at the gate and on my door. I immediately went to alert the chief, who summoned Yusuf, but he refused to show up. I then went to the police who accompanied me to the plot. They broke the padlock on the gate and on my house, allowing me to get in,” she says.

When she stepped out later, however, she found the gate locked again, forcing her son, Abdijabar Billow, to sleep in the family car parked outside. Harrow and her younger children were able to access the house.

“In the middle of the night, we heard a commotion. The gang had come back and they were trying to gain access to our house. They did not manage to do so. When they left, we failed to locate both Abdijabar and the car.

She blames Yusuf for the disappearance of her children and claims they might have been killed and buried in a graveyard within the compound where the rental houses are.

EVICTION NOTICE

“He threatened me and said that because I had beaten him in court on the eviction notice, he would find other ways of dealing with me. He might have decided to take my children away to punish me. I, too, feel that my life is in danger. I have been sleeping in lodgings since the night Abdijabar disappeared,” she says.

She says she is afraid of staying in one place for long lest Yusuf or his goons catch up with her. When the Nation visited the area on Saturday, Harrow was anything but timid. She confidently led us into the house at the centre of the dispute, accompanied by young men. She loudly accused Yussuf of having a role in the disappearance of her children.

“I want to know where my children and my property is. Warsame needs to come clean and say what he did to them,” she said, her voice breaking and tears glistening in her eyes. A large crowd then gathered, and shortly after the local chief and administrative police officers arrived, accompanied by landlord Yussuf.

Yussuf dismissed Harrow’s claims, labelling her a trouble maker and a nuisance. With an incendiary anger, he engaged her in a shouting match.

WOMAN IN PAIN

“I have no idea what happened to her children. I am not responsible for them. This woman is a pain. She owes me five months of rent, which is why I want her out of my property. She has been rejected by everyone in the neighbourhood and I know that she is causing trouble so that she gets an extension on the eviction order. That will not happen,” he shouts. He also denied claims that he had sent goons to attack her and her family.

Tenants at the property, who have watched this drama for months, have conflicting opinions about what happened. For some, Yussuf is blameless, and the trouble is with Harrow.

“Rahama causes trouble for everyone. She is loud and obnoxious. We shall be glad to be rid of her. She and her son have been accused of stealing phones from other tenants,” said a neighbour who declined to give her name.

She disputed Harrow’s allegations that Yussuf had anything to do with the disappearance of Harrow’s children, saying she believes the girls and their brother are out there somewhere and may have fled the home due to their mother’s overbearing nature.

MISSING GIRLS

The area’s Nyumba Kumi chairman, Mr Clive Wanguthi, said the missing girls might have sought refuge at their boyfriends’ residences.

But according to Steve Onyango and Hindia Ahmed, both neighbours of Rahama, her claims are legitimate. They said the landlord should be held to account for attempting to illegally kick her out of the house and for the disappearance of the children.

Local chief Paul Maore said Harrow had not reported the missing children to him, but added that he was aware of the feud with the landlord, while Starehe OCPD Alice Kimeu, under whose jurisdiction Pangani Police Station falls, said the police were still investigating the matter.