Did Kenya security men kidnap Nigerian separatist Nnamdi Kanu for Sh18 million?

In 1967, the then Biafra State waged a secessionist war whose aftermath was the estimated death of at least one million people. Kenya has now found itself at the centre of Nigeria’s political problems.

The question is: Did Kenya conspire with Nigeria to break international law – or did we have rogue agents within the police service who sold a vulnerable man to Abuja?

Read: Kenya denies arrest, deportation of Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu

The kidnap occurred on June 19, 2021, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). Kanu, according to his testimony, was held for eight days by his kidnappers until June 27, 2021, when he was handed over to Nigerian secret agencies at JKIA. It is unclear whether the bounty of 100 million Naira (about Sh18.2 million), promised to anyone who arrested Kanu, was paid – and to whom. If the bounty was paid, that would explain the silence exhibited by the police on the matter and the failure to legalise the extradition through a court process.

It appears that everyone was muted.

On June 29, 2021, Nigerian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubaker Malami, stated that Kanu had been "intercepted through the collaborative efforts of the Nigerian intelligence and security services" on June 27, 2021, and had been "brought back to Nigeria in order to continue facing trial." He did not mention that they had kidnapped him from Kenya.

The matter is becoming more complex since Kanu is a dual UK citizen, and London has been under pressure to intervene in a "hostage situation."

Already, a Nigerian Court has awarded Kanu a sum of 500 million Naira (Sh88.5 million) as compensation for illegally kidnapping him and violating his rights as a human in Kenya.

The UN Human Rights Council says Kanu was kidnapped at the JKIA and "swiftly taken to an undisclosed and unknown location, which was not a police station or any of the conventional Kenyan security detention facilities."

This case echoes that of Abdullah Ocalan two decades ago in JKIA. Kanu is the leader of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra (IBOP), a separatist group and his case is being watched by the international community. Kanu has claimed in a Nigerian court that he was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment for the eight days he was held in Nairobi.

"When he fainted, cold water was poured over him to revive him. He was taunted by his captors who called him a ‘separatist Igbo Jew’ and threatened that he would be ‘expelled to Nigeria to face death’. That is precisely what then happened," his brother, Kingsley Kanu, has told a UK parliamentary committee.

After he was taken to court, Kanu filed a preliminary objection arguing that his arrest was illegal since he was kidnapped from Kenya. On the day he was abducted, Kanu had gone to JKIA to pick up a guest and was grabbed at the parking bay. How a person could be seized from a secure facility is not clear.

Kanu had fled Nigeria after police stormed a peaceful vigil at his home and killed 28 people, members of his organisation. He first went to London before flying to Nairobi for some business. An affidavit filed by Attorney-General's office indicates that Kanu arrived in Nairobi on May 12, 2021, but there was no departure date in his immigration records.

Kanu's lawyer Bar Aloy Ejimakor has been quoted by Nigerian press saying this was "the clearest official confirmation yet from the government of Kenya that what happened to Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya amounts to crime, both in Nigeria, Kenya and under international law."

When Kanu objected to his continued trial, the Court of Appeal in Nigeria found that his removal from Kenya "without complying with the processes …was in flagrant breach of laws and the fundamental human rights of (Mr Kanu)." Although the Court had ordered his release since the Nigerian government could not prove the legality of his arrest, Kanu is still detained by the authorities.

Read: Nnamdi Kanu: Kenya sucked into drama as family, UK demand answers

Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, who wrote the three-bench Court of Appeal ruling, stopped the lower courts from trying Kanu on any offence committed before his "extraordinary rendition."

"In addition, by the forcible abduction and the extraordinary rendition of Mr Kanu from Kenya to this country on June 27 2021, in violation of international laws and state laws, the lower Court or indeed any Court in this country is divested of jurisdiction to entertain charges against (Mr Kanu) and I so hold."

The other judges of the Court gave concurring judgments.

Now, an appeal has been pending since October 28, 2022 with the Nigerian Supreme Court, and the Federal government is not in a hurry to have the appeal heard.

Kanu’s brother has been fighting in British courts to have the UK government intervene since Kanu is a dual citizen. The family also says they are frustrated that the British authorities have not condemned the kidnapping of their national.

Kanu’s continued detention is also the subject of attention by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which is part of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Working Group has raised concern over Kanu's treatment in Kenya and Nigeria and called for his immediate release.

Although the UK court was told that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised Kanu's case with then President Muhammadu Buhari during a bilateral meeting held on July 29, 2021, and that a Note Verbale (diplomatic note) dated December 14, 2021 was sent to the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally requesting an explanation of how Kanu was transferred to Nigeria, there has been no positive movement on the case.

The matter is also becoming a diplomatic issue, and it is now known that when UK Minister Vicky Ford met with then Kenyan Cabinet for Foreign Affairs, Raychelle Omamo, in January last year, she raised concerns regarding Kanu's kidnap.

Kanu's case mirrors that of Ocalan, the Kurdish separatist leader who was seized from Nairobi and taken to Turkey for a trial similar to that of Kanu. Ocalan was the founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which had then waged a 15-year armed struggle in Turkey and Iraq to recognize a Kurdish state. For years, Ocalan had evaded arrest by hiding in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, where he had, on June 2, 1979, set up the headquarters of PKK, a movement he had founded in 1974. He also had a secure home in Damascus, the Syrian capital, until international pressure forced him out in October 1998, and he found his way to Kenya.

Read: How Kenya got sucked into Kurdish wars

Ocalan had arrived in Nairobi using a fake passport and was to await asylum in South Africa. He strategically chose Greece's embassy in Nairobi as his protector from Turkish agents. He was wrong. Kenya's minister for Foreign Affairs Bonaya Godana got worried about Ocalan's presence and summoned the Greek ambassador. He told him that a plane was available to fly out Ocalan to a safe destination and that the Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos had accepted the Kenyan offer to fly the fugitive to a third country.

As he left the embassy, Ocalan thought he was being flown to Amsterdam. He naively boarded an unmarked car with Kenyan security personnel. It was a mistake. They drove him to the airport and handed him over to Turkish agents. He was jailed for life in 1999 and is held in solitary confinement in İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara.

These two international kidnaps, two decades apart, indicate the existence of rogue agents within the security service. Whatever happens to Kanu, it will be another embarrassing case like that of Ocalan, which has become a global case study on illegal extraditions.

Did Kenya security men kidnap the Nigerian for the Sh18 million reward? Your guess is as good as mine.

[email protected]; Twitter: @johnkamau1