Families cry for help amid mysterious disappearance of their kin

Three men from Mombasa who are involved in the matatu business have gone missing for 19 days under unclear circumstances.

Masuo Bakari, 51 years, Hussein Mohammed aged 26 and 21-year-old Fami Bakari, are reported to have vanished on December 9, 2021 as they were traveling from Nairobi to Mombasa but didn’t get home even after informing their relatives that they had reached Voi area.

Addressing the media on Friday, Mohammed Hussein father to the 26- year-old boy said that the three have been operating in matatu business with his son being the driver and his friend Fami the conductor.

The journey to Nairobi was meant to go and buy a matatu so they could come back with it to Mombasa and continue with their hustle. Masuo Bakar was sponsoring the purchase.

“The last time we were in contact with my son was at around 11 am on December 9, on Sunday where my son called his wife telling her to make lunch as he was in Voi town nearing Mombasa. It went up to 5pm and he had not shown up, and that is when the wife got worried and came to my house to inform me, his mobile was off by that time,” said Hussein.

He said that, upon waiting up to 8pm, he decided to go to Mariakani police station to enquire in case the three were involved in an accident but no such information had been filed at the police station.

“I had to follow the route and on reaching Maungu I was told by local residents that a car was packed at Maungu mosque and upon arrival I noticed that it was the same car my son and his colleagues were traveling in,” he added.

Hussein said that police confirmed that the car registration KDB 484V was indeed dumped but unscratched, and showed no signs of any accident and promised to track the three through the Divisional Criminal Investigation (DCI).

“Report of their last access as per the tracking system was at Kibanda Sara where he made his call to the wife. We got no more information thereafter. In the car, CID officers found shoes, a t-shirt belonging to my son and vegetables which they had bought to bring home,” added the father.

According to Fatuma Bakari, sister to Fami, their brother had just finished school and had dreams of taking care of his family through his matatu hustle.

A human rights group helping the family to mobilise the government in the search of their lost relative said that a lot needs to be done to ensure that no more people get lost or abducted as the cases are now on the rise.

Francis Auma Rapid response officer at Muslim for Human Rights group in Mombasa urged the government to intervene and help the families trace their lost relative.

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