Mandera: Family Of Businessman Allegedly Abducted By DCI Demands His Body From State

• Isaack Ibrahim's family filed a habeas corpus in court seeking the state to produce his body days after he went missing
• His family claimed he was abducted by officers attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on May 2
• Representing the family in court is lawyer Danstan Omari; they said their kin's missing had caused them a lot of agony

Kai Eli, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings more than three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.

The family of a businessman who was allegedly abducted by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers from his home in Elwak Sub County have now moved to court seeking to have his body produced.

According to court documents, Hussein Alew, a brother of Isaack Ibrahim says that he was kidnapped by disguised individuals who were wearing combat police uniforms and driving three land cruisers on the afternoon of May 2 this year.

Agony to family, filing of habeas corpus

Through his lawyer, Danstan Omari, Alew filed a habeas corpus application requesting that the court compels the state to produce his brother.

He told the court that the alleged DCI officers said they were effecting arrest.

"On the 2nd May 2024 at about 0100 hours, Issack Ibrahim was kidnapped at from his matrimonial house in Bulla Afya Location by disguised individuals who were wearing combat police uniforms and driving three land cruisers under the guise of effecting an arrest", the court papers read.

Alew said after his brother was abducted, he reported the incident to the area chief.

He lamented that his family was undergoing a lot of stress and anxiety because of Ibrahim's abduction and disappearance.

He added that his brother's whereabouts remained unknown and unaccounted for.

"There is a reasonable fear that he was abducted by officers attached to the respondents who have refused to either allow his family to visit him in custody and/or refused to present him before a court of law to answer to any charge in law," he submitted.

Omari told the court that unless the court intervenes and compels the police to produce Ibrahim in court his family will continue to live with anxiety.

"Unless this honourable court intervenes and compels the respondents to produce the said Issack Ibrahim before this honourable court or any other court with the requisite jurisdiction, the applicant and his family will continue to live with anxiety and stress caused by the forced disappearance and abduction of their loved one without the benefit of being subjected to any legal proceedings," he stated.

What does Hussein Alew's family want from court?

He added that Ibrahim has a right to be subjected to due process other than leaving his loved ones worrying about his whereabouts.

Among the prayers he is seeking is for the court to issue a summon directing the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome and the DCI boss Amin Mohamed to produce him in any court.

"That this honourable court does order a summons to issue directed against the Inspector General of Police and the DCI in whose custody is Issack Ibrahim to produce the body of the says Issack before this court together with the original of any warrant or order for detention on a date to be given," the prayers read in part.

The family also want the court to issue an order for their kin to be released from custody forthwith.

Habeas corpus is a fundamental right in the Constitution that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. It is translated from Latin which means “show me the body".

It has historically been an important instrument to safeguard individual freedom against arbitrary executive power.

Reportage by Zipporah Weru, TUKO.co.ke's court correspondent.