Thursday 15th May, 2025 06:40 AM|

The Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) wants a public inquiry established to probe abduction cases. 

IPOA chair Issack Hassan told MPs, who sit in the committee on Administration and Internal Security, to hasten investigations to establish individuals behind the violations. 

He said: “Ipoa has recommended that because of the nature of these complaints, it’s time we set up a public inquiry. Whether it will be called a judicial commission of Inquiry or a public inquiry, but some sort of inquiry that can bring together all these complaints and arrests.” 

Hassan, who appeared before the committee chaired by Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo to defend the institution’s budget estimates for the financial year 2025/26, told the committee that the authority had observed a pattern of abductions where those abducting Kenyans were not dressed in official police uniform yet they were armed and carried out abductions in broad day light. 

He expressed frustrations in conducting investigations into the abductions and police killings. 

He said: “They were not even concerned by the presence of regular police nearby or CCTV cameras. As we sit now, it’s very hard to pinpoint the police because the Inspector General of Police has come out and said they do not know and are not taking part in these abductions or killings,” he stated. 

He added: “It is up to the committee and this Parliament to give guidance on that.  As for Ipoa we only oversight the police and we have had people who were being abducted by policemen and we have tried to get more information so that they are arrested and charged. “ 

IPOA Chief Executive Officer Elema Halake said that the responsibility of ensuring that abductors are held accountable lies squarely on the National Police Service (NPS).  

He said: “As Ipoa, we feel the National Police Service remains responsible for unearthing the abductions as it is a major issue that the IG should lead in getting resolutions.” 

The duo made the remarks after Mandera MP Hussein Abdirahman sought to know the measures the institution has taken to address cases of abductions. 

He said, “The president recently said that people who had been abducted have been released, and it is true. But who was behind the abductions? Have you investigated who was behind the acts?” 

Their sentiments come hardly a day after President William Ruto assured the country that all Kenyans abducted have been safely reunited with their families, even as he emphasised his administration’s commitment to preventing enforced disappearances. 

Speaking on Monday during a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who is in Kenya for a three-day visit, Ruto stated that the government had taken decisive action to address the situation. 

He assured that all previously reported missing people had been reunited with their families. 

He said: “All the people who disappeared or were abducted have been brought back to their homes. I have given clarity that nothing of that nature will happen again.” 

And added: “There is an accountability mechanism to ensure such situations are addressed,” said President Ruto. “I undertook to the country that, as a democracy, Kenya will not go back to the dark days when citizens disappeared and their bodies were found in all manner of places. That will not happen under my administration.” 

And yesterday during the session, the authority also called for the setting up of special courts to specifically deal with police violations. 

He said: “We have anti-corruption courts and land and environment courts as well as children courts. So we thought we could ask the Chief Justice and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to establish a special court specifically dealing with police violations cases. Instead of lumping all these cases together, we are asking that these cases be given priority because they are a matter of public interest.”