Businessman Karisa Mae was allegedly removed from a matatu at Arabuko area along the Kilifi-Malindi Road on Monday evening by hooded people believed to be officers from a government agency and his whereabouts are not known.
According to witnesses who were travelling Mae, three vehicles with private registration numbers blocked the matatu and a woman, believed to be a security agent walked into the public service vehicle and asked for Mae. The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a passenger sitting next to Mae, and who is suspected to have been trailing Mae, pointed at him and the lady handcuffed Mae and asked him to get out of the vehicle.
Another passenger was also forced out of the vehicle after Mae was seen whispering something to him, but he was later released after brief questioning, according to the witnesses. Last evening, family members asked the agency to produce the 41-year-old father of five alive because they believe he has done nothing wrong to warrant the alleged abduction and possible torture.
According to them, Mae, whose occupation is drilling boreholes, has been living like a fugitive following an incident in which three officers from the agency, who were stationed in Nairobi, were in February this year attacked at his work premises, leading to the death of a female officer.
Malindi businessman Karisa Mae,
Mae was subsequently arrested and charged alongside others with robbery with violence, and is out on a Sh1 million bond, but family members say unknown people have been visiting his home in Serengeti, ostensibly to arrest him. The family told journalists that Mae left home on Monday morning to take his son to Shimo la Tewa School and was returning home in a Malindi bound matatu when he was abducted and has since been held incommunicado and his mobile phone number is out of service.
“I am asking the government to help me find my son, who has no record of wrongdoing. I want my son to be produced alive,” a weeping Chigenda Karisa, Mae’s mother pleaded, sentiments that were echoed by Mae’s wife, Nzara Mae.
She said that at one time as they were going home together with relatives using Mae’s car after attending a court session, they were stopped by unknown people who demanded to know Mae’s whereabouts, but Mae was not in the vehicle.
Mae’s brother, Hassan Karisa Mae, suspected he could have been abducted to stop him from appearing in court for the hearing of the robbery with violence case, which has been dragging at a Malindi court, since his accusers have not been attending the same.
According to him, Mae’s predicament started in February when he noticed a private car at his work premises whose occupants looked suspicious and on checking, he found that they were armed.
Mae is said to have alerted his workers before rushing to report the incident to the police, but when he returned in the company of the officers later, he found a mob attacking the unknown persons, who were rescued by the police but one died later in hospital.
Mae’s lawyer, James Mouko, confirmed on phone that he had received the information and raised the matter with the court, which in turn requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Malindi to write to the agency to ask it to stop interfering with the case.
Efforts to get confirmation from the police were futile as Malindi Sub County Police Commander Wilmont Mwakio, who spoke over the phone, said he was not aware of the incident since the alleged abduction did not take place in his area of jurisdiction.