A widow of drug baron Ibrahim Akasha Abdalla has sued the State following the disappearance of her teenage twin granddaughters three weeks ago.
In a petition filed at the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi, Ms Hayat Akasha says the teens aged 18 were last seen in the morning of August 2 in the company of a man living within their neighbourhood in Nairobi.
She accuses the police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) of being unwilling to help in the search for the teens or providing information about their disappearance.
Trace and produce
Ms Akasha wants the court to declare that her right to information on the whereabouts of her grandchildren has been infringed by the State security. She also wants the court to order the police to trace and produce the twins and arrest the suspects.
The girls were picked up by an unknown car on August 2 after their grandmother sent them to buy breakfast from a shop near their home. They were accompanied by their nine-year-old brother who returned home alone and informed his grandmother of the incident.
The boy said his sisters were in the company of one of their male neighbours and didn’t tell him when they would be back.
Through lawyer John Khaminwa, Ms Akasha says the main suspects in the saga are four of her neighbours who she claims could have orchestrated the disappearance, since they were very close to the minors. She has listed the neighbours — a woman and three men — as interested parties in the case.
“The girls were so close with their neighbour and there is [a] likelihood he whisked them away. I deeply believe they had been misled by the neighbours so that they could elope,” the plaintiff says in the court papers.
Ms Akasha says she tried to inquire from neighbours on the whereabouts of the teens and they indicated that the girls could have been taken to Mowlem Estate in Embakasi, Nairobi.
Ms Akasha questions why the police have not summoned the suspects for interrogation over the girls’ disappearance.
She says that upon reporting the matter at the Dandora Police Station and requesting the police to investigate and trace the girls, the officers have handled the issue in a sluggish manner, with no positive response. The report was booked as OB No. 10/02/2021.
On August 11 she got a call from a DCI officer informing her that the suspects would appear at Dandora Police Station, only for her to meet a lawyer, Ms Diana Gichuru.
“I have experienced great anxiety and being in sleepless nights ever since my grandchildren went missing. I believe that unless this court asserts pressure on the Inspector-General of Police to produce the girls, they may be harmed to my detriment and the extended family,” Ms Akasha says.
The elderly woman has been in primary custody of the girls since their childhood.
Two Akasha sons, Ibrahim and Baktash , are serving jail terms in the US over drug trafficking.
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