Friday June 21, 2024 {HMC}— Two Somali federal government MPs were briefly detained while visiting Nairobi, Kenya, they told the BBC Somali Service.
Ahmed Abdi Kooshin, who is also the Secretary of the Defense Committee, and Hassan Abdinoor said undercover officers detained them, accusing them of working against the Somali federal government.
“We were at a hotel in the Kilimani area of Nairobi and decided to move to another nearby hotel. A car followed us and then cut us off. Five men were in the car; one left, and three approached us, one wearing a mask. They started questioning us about our activities,” Kooshin said.
“The car had five men; one got out and left, one stayed inside wearing a mask, and three approached us, asking questions, including about our identification,” he added.
The MPs showed their Somali parliamentary ID cards, but the men demanded the passports they used to enter Kenya. The suspected officers refused to show their IDs.
The lawmakers were informed they would be taken to the nearest military base. Another Somali Federal MP, Ali Mahdi Qalato, who was with them, was released as the captors did not recognize him as an MP. “They let him go because they didn’t know he was a member of parliament,” Kooshin said.
Abdinoor added, “I don’t believe they released Qalato because they didn’t recognize him. The car was full, and it seemed like they had information about us.”
The MPs were detained for about an hour and extensively questioned. They emphasized that they had no formal government meetings or organized plans in Nairobi aside from casual gatherings at restaurants or for tea.
The MPs expressed their disappointment that the Somali parliamentary leadership had not yet commented on the incident. They have informed the Somali embassy in Nairobi and plan to contact Somali security agencies.
The issue of abductions is not new. This latest incident adds to growing concerns over security for ethnic Somalis in Kenya. In recent years, there have been several high-profile kidnappings and murders targeting the Somali community in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya. In June 2021, Hamza Mohamed, a Somali businessman, was kidnapped and later found murdered in Nairobi, raising alarm among the Kenyan-Somali community. The month prior, Somali-American engineer Bashir Mohamed’s body was found after he had been missing for several days.
In September 2021, the family of a missing Kenyan scholar, Abdisamad Sheikh Hassan, claimed that the Somali Prime Minister ordered his kidnap. Hassan was eventually released after ten days of captivity.
More recently, Adan Osman, a Nairobi businessman and Madrassa teacher, was kidnapped in November 2023. His abduction was captured on CCTV cameras.
Similarly, there have been multiple reports of targeted kidnappings in the Eastleigh area, a neighbourhood known for its large Somali population.
The recurring theme of these incidents is the targeting of Somali individuals, often with political or criminal motivations. Reports suggest that these kidnappings are sometimes orchestrated by criminal gangs or politically motivated actors seeking to intimidate or eliminate their opponents.
Somali MPs in Kenya have frequently voiced concerns about the rising cases of kidnappings and have demanded thorough investigations. They argue that the security situation is deteriorating and that more needs to be done to protect Somali nationals in the country. In June 2021, Somali MPs held a press conference in Nairobi, decrying the rising cases of kidnappings and urging Kenyan authorities to address the security lapses.
