We need to know who is taking people, where they are being held, who is giving the instructions and what consequences follow when the law is broken.
Habeas corpus. A legal term that many Kenyans have become increasingly familiar with. In simple terms, it is a court order requiring that a person who has been detained be brought before a court, so that the legality of their detention can be examined.
In recent times, however, we have heard it expressed in much more frightening language. Produce this person in court. Dead or alive.
Think about those words for a moment. Dead. Or alive. That a family should have to go before a judge and ask the authorities to produce their loved one, dead or alive, is a frightening reflection of the times we are living in. And sadly, this is not the first time.
Remember the Longton brothers? They disappeared in August 2024, alongside activist Bob Njagi. For approximately one month, their families lived with the agony of not knowing. Then, one morning, they were found alive in Gachie, Kiambu County. They said they had been abandoned by their captors. Imagine the relief of those families. But imagine, too, the questions that remained. Who took them? Where were they held? Why were they taken? And who would be held accountable?
