Samuel Kamau who went missing for a week found detained at Buruburu police station

Samuel Kamau, who was reported missing on Thursday last week, has been found in police custody at the Buruburu Police Station.

 

However, the officers claimed that he was arrested on Tuesday for robbery with violence and is to be taken to court on Thursday.

 

Police officers who had recorded the incident during an outreach by the Missing Voices coalition on Wednesday evening contacted Kamau’s wife informing her that he was being detained in Buruburu.“

 

I have gone to all the police stations around and the officers say they did not arrest him,” Waithera Macharia, Kamau’s mother, said in Kayole on Tuesday.

 

The case had been brought to light when Waithera spoke at an event as the world marked the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30.

 

“On Thursday last week, Kamau left his house for work but while there he was picked up by plain-clothed police officers at Kayole Junction stage,” the mother told the crowd.

 

“We have not found him or his body. I plan to go to Ruai, just to check if he was dumped in the sewerage treatment plant.”

 

The officers who were attending the event noted the case which led to the revelation that Kamau was being held in Buruburu Police Station.

 

According to police officers at Buruburu police station, Kamau was arrested on Wednesay in Soweto area, Kayole where he had been hiding.

 

However, Kamau told his lawyers that he had been arrested on Thursday August 20 and was being detained at DO police post in Kayole. The officers did not disclose to him the reason for his arrest.“

 

He was transferred to Buruburu Police Station yesterday and was booked under OB 31/31/08 by an officer attached to DCI, Buruburu,” said Perpetua Kariuki, an human rights defender in Kayole. 

 

Kamau has since been released unconditional from Buruburu Police Station. He was not taken to court.

 

Samuel is just one of the 69 people who have disappeared in the past three years, according to data by the Missing Voices coalition.

 

Missing Voices recorded 10 cases of enforced disappearances in 2019, 22 in 2020 and 36 in 2021 in a worrying upward trend.

 

Most of the cases were reported in Mombasa followed by Nairobi.