Families in pain as abductions, killings spark fresh fears

As a section of Kenyans took to the streets on Tuesday to demand justice for slain teacher Albert Ojwang, another family in North Rift is in pain after two relatives were abducted by people believed to be police officers.

This comes amid concerns of rising abductions in Kerio Valley, which has left families living in fear.

A medical laboratory technologist, Edward Terer, was abducted on June 2, and six days later, his brother-in-law, Mark Lomuke, was picked up by people believed to be police officers.

Terer, 47, who comes from Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County, and his brother-in-law, a resident of Tot, in Kerio Valley, are yet to be traced. The medic worked at Hope Clinic in Sambalat trading centre near the Elgeyo Marakwet-West Pokot border.

On Sunday, Terer’s family held prayers in Megun, Kapseret constituency, to seek divine intervention, two days after locals in Uasin Gishu protested his abduction.

Residents claimed that more than ten men have been abducted in Kerio Valley in recent weeks, while others have been gunned down on suspicion of engaging in banditry.

Relatives of those bundled into private vehicles and taken away have gone to several mortuaries, sought information in different police stations and combed several areas of the troubled valley in quest to find their kin dead or alive. But the search has been fruitless for some families and tears for others who have found their relatives dead, in thickets.

Terer’s younger brother, Augustine Limo, said he was informed by locals that his brother was abducted alongside a senior official at the clinic, who was released that night, as well as another colleague identified only as Hillary. 

“I have spoken to the official who was abducted alongside my brother and released later that night, and he has told me that he was questioned about the clinic’s activities and operations before he was released. He confirmed to us that they were picked by the police,” said Limo.

The brother said for the 14 years the missing relative was working in Kerio Valley and had not engaged in criminal activities. Limo said police in Elgeyo Marakwet have refused to give the family information about Terer’s whereabouts, and not supported search efforts.

“We are in an agonising situation. We have gone as far as mortuaries in Kapenguria and Sigor in West Pokot, Kapsowar and Iten in Elgeyo Marakwet, Kabarnet in Baringo, and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, but his body is not in the morgues, and we want the government to tell us where our brother is,” the brother said.

He said the family reported the abduction at Tot Police Station two days after the alleged disappearance but were not accorded any assistance.

Elgeyo Marakwet County Police Commander Peter Mulinge maintained that he was not aware of Terer’s abduction.

Terer’s wife, Tecla Yano, said: “I don’t know what to say. I was unwell the day he was abducted, and he didn’t talk a lot. He only said that he was doing well at work.”

She said her husband was a polite man who could not get involved in crime. “I want to be told where my husband and brother are. My husband has never wronged anyone and is not involved in activities in the Kerio Valley. He only does his job as a health worker,” she said.

Terer joins a long list of people abducted in Kerio Valley in what Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen described last month as an operation to eliminate suspected bandits. Lomuke’s brother, Michael Yano, claimed the missing kin is a worker at Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) mango processing factory in Tot and was abducted on the night of Sunday, June 8.