Human rights group Muhuri has issued a statement following police reports that Saida Abdulrahman, a 20-year-old kidnapped Mombasa woman was not pregnant as she claimed.
Below is Muhuri's statement released on September 25.
"STATEMENT ON SAIDA ABDULRAHMAN CASE
In the wake of increased cases of disappearances and kidnappings across the country and particularly at the Coast, we take cases of disappearance very seriously.
When we are approached by a family worried about the whereabouts of their loved ones, we have the responsibility to support the family in all possible ways hopefully to the time of recovery of their loved ones or at least to know more about their loved ones’ whereabouts.
We often then follow up on the case to its logical conclusion to ensure that justice is done through and through.
For this case, we were approached by a family in distress asking for assistance to trace their daughter who had gone missing.
We urgently took up the case with the police to follow up and with spirited support of the media and Kenyans of goodwill, Saida Abdulrahman was found in Nairobi. We are therefore grateful to the Police for their assistance and to all Kenyans that sent us messages of goodwill and prayers during the follow up.
We are particularly grateful for the professional and urgent intervention afforded to us on this case by Urban Police Officer DCIO, Jacob Kanake and his team.
However, we have been shocked and greatly disturbed by the developments of this case as reported by investigating officers.
Revelation that Saida Abdulrahman may not actually have been pregnant and questions around whether she was really abducted based on variations of her account of events is very disturbing.
Our incense with these developments if true is that, this level of misinformation creates unnecessary tension within the public and trivializes serious societal problems and this is utterly condemnable.
It further places our rapid response interventions in disrepute and jeopardizes support that would be offered to genuine cases of such nature.
We therefore urge the police to conduct thorough investigations into these developments and if found that Saida Abdulrahman peddled falsehood in this case, we demand with no uncertain terms for public apology from Saida Abdulrahman and her family to MUHURI.
The family should also publicly apologize to the police and the public for the misinformation and state clearly their motives for such irresponsible and condemnable behavior.
There are families experiencing unimaginable suffering occasioned by kidnappings and disappearances; to imagine that such emotive and unfortunate issue can be trivialized for personal expediency is abhorable and shameful!
End of Statement"
Read: Rights group issues statement as kidnapped 20-year-old pregnant girl loses baby
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