2 missing Indians part of Kenyan prez poll drive feared killed

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New Delhi, October 23

The police in Kenya have found bones, clothes and belts believed to have belonged to two missing Indians and their Kenyan driver, a week after New Delhi asked Nairobi to intensify its efforts to locate them.

Disbanded special unit under lens

• Indian nationals Zulfiqar Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai went missing more than two months ago in Nairobi
• Both were in Kenya to join president William Ruto’s election campaign team
• The probe has narrowed down to 12 officers who were part of the disbanded Special Service Unit
• They are believed to have been involved in the kidnapping of the two Indians and their Kenyan driver

Former Balaji Telefilms COO Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and another Indian national Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai went missing more than two months ago after leaving a popular club in an affluent residential neighbourhood in Nairobi.

A new team of more than 100 Kenyan police official scoured the route from where they were kidnapped and found their suspected remains about 200 km from Nairobi in the Aberdare forest reserve.

The investigation has narrowed down to 12 officers who were part of the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU), believed to have been involved in the kidnapping of the three men. Three of these officers had reportedly been identified as having played a direct role in the disappearance of the Indians, who were experts in information and communication technology (ICT).

The three officers – a chief inspector, a sergeant and a corporal – had their official cars detained at the Capitol Hill police station, Nairobi.

The discovery of the bones and other items came a week after it emerged that India had complained to Kenya, demanding the release of the two men who were at the time thought to be in police custody, reported the Kenyan media.

“Two Indians, who had gone missing in Kenya in mid-July, may have been murdered by a shadowy intelligence outfit,” said Dennis Itumbi, a close ally of Kenyan president William Ruto.

He has publicly acknowledged that the missing Indians were part of the Kenya Kwanza digital campaign team for the presidential elections. According to Itumbi, they were killed by a special unit of the state police.

“Asante sana (Thank you very much) President Ruto for disbanding the DCI Elite unit. This was one unit that was literally used to kidnap, assault, maim and kill innocent people. They targeted those who supported the election of Ruto as president. Zaid was one such person,” said Itumbi in a Facebook post.

Police officers have retrieved the CCTV footage and said the “evidence shows them getting into a cab. Minutes later, a vehicle, the ones used by the rogue DCI unit, blocked the cab. Kidwai and Khan were dragged into the car. Their cab driver too”.

Itumbi apprehended that the trio were pushed inside a container and murdered, as had been the fate of Kenyans in the past.

The police have detained some officers and asked them to hand over a file on the missing case to a new probe team.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said a police complaint had been registered and a habeas corpus petition had been filed in a Kenyan court.