Missing Wajir MCA Yussuf Ahmed.
An investigation into serious crimes rocking the Wajir County Government could have a hand in the mysterious disappearance of a local ward representative who went missing 38 days ago.
The Wajir County Security and Intelligence Committee (CSIC) had summoned Dela MCA Yusuf Hussein Ahmed to appear before them on August 6, 2024, to discuss “issues touching on security.”
A dispute has since emerged over whether or not he honoured the summons, with local security officials saying he snubbed the invite even as his family insists he attended the meeting as directed only to vanish a month later.
Although the letter did not specify the nature of the security concerns the team wanted to discuss with the assembly whip, a visit to the region the following month by security chiefs, prior to the politician’s disappearance, revealed the government’s concerns about human, drugs and arms trafficking.
The then acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr Gilbert Masengeli, had been in the North Eastern region, which ended on September 11, two days before the MCA’s abduction in Nairobi by armed men.
A dispatch by the National Police Service (NPS) indicated that the police bosses held discussions to find lasting solutions to “the war against terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling of contraband goods and inter-clan conflicts within the region.”
Among those who accompanied Mr Masengeli were Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Amin Mohamed, General Service Unit Commandant Ranson Lolmoodoni, his Border Police Unit counterpart James Kamau and Anti-Terror Police Unit boss Said Kiprotich.
During the tour, the police chiefs had engagements with security officers, the CSIC, national government administrators, elected leaders and community elders. It was not immediately clear whether the MCA was in attendance.
Two days after this high-level meeting, on the night of September 13, the MCA was abducted as he was being driven in a taxi along Enterprise Road in Nairobi.
In his account of the events, the taxi driver, identified as Mr Wambua Kioko, said two armed men alighted from two unmarked Toyota Land Cruiser Prados which blocked their way and forced the politician out of the taxi.
He has never been seen since. His family believes the people who abducted the MCA were police officers and linked his woes to the summons to appear before the Wajir CSIC.
The Wajir CSIC, through a letter by Wajir County Commissioner Karuku Ngumo, had cited discussions touching on security issues affecting the region as reason for the summons.
“You are requested to attend a meeting on Thursday, August 8, 2024, at the county commissioner’s office Wajir, at 10am ... to discuss with you issues touching on security,” the letter dated August 6, 2024, a copy of which Nation has obtained, reads in part.
A source who sits on the security committee but who requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media said the MCA never attended the meeting.
“It is true that he was summoned but he never honoured that invitation. In fact, he told off the committee,” the source said.
Pressed to give details on what exactly Mr Hussein was to discuss with the security committee, the source declined to give specifics.
But the family of the MCA has insisted he honoured the summons and attended the meeting. He vanished a month later and the family believes the two events could be connected.
Denied knowledge
Reached for comment, Mr Ngumo denied knowledge of the letter. “I do not know anything to do with the missing MCA. To be honest, I didn’t even know him in person,” he said before hanging up the phone.
The MCA’s family has filed a case at the High Court seeking to have the National Police Service compelled to produce Mr Hussein dead or alive. During the hearing last week, Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja made an application for in-camera proceedings citing national security concerns.
The MCA’s abduction has been condemned by the family through their lawyer, Mr Danstan Omari. They say the police are behind it.
