Belgut Member of Parliament (MP) Nelson Koech is disputing the accounts of some young Kenyans who were reported missing in December amid a spate of abductions targeting critics of President William Ruto’s government.

On Monday, the families of five men among those abducted over what has been perceived as social media posts criticising Ruto confirmed that their kin had been released.

They include cartoonist Gideon Kibet alias Kibet Bull, Billy Mwangi, Peter Muteti, Bernard Kavuli and Rony Kiplangat.

Kibet was abducted by suspected security officials on December 24 shortly after meeting Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah at the latter’s office in Nairobi.

Upon his release, the cartoonist said he was dumped in the Luanda area of Vihiga County in the wee hours of Monday.

In a post on his X account late in the afternoon, Kibet said he attended a nearby ‘disco matanga’, an overnight funeral dance, before booking a bus ticket home.

Koech on Tuesday poked holes at the cartoonist’s account, saying “You cannot be abducted, released in the morning and still be able to attend a disco Matanga. It is impossible.”

“How do you party when you have been abducted; where do you get the energy? How do you look so clean-shaven and still afford a beer and dance with girls?” Koech said on Citizen TV’s Day Break program.

Besides Kibet, Kiplangat, who was also abducted in Nairobi, was found in Machakos County, while Kavuli, abducted in Ngong, was found in Kitale. 

Mwangi was found in Embu town; Muteti, with whom Mwangi shared AI-generated images of Ruto in a coffin before they disappeared, was meanwhile found in the Nairobi city centre.

‘PLAYING A GAME’

When pressed on whether he denied the young men had been abducted, Koech said: “I am not saying they were not abducted, I am saying there are things that do not connect, something is amiss.”

“Look at the faces of the people who have been reported as abducted, they look very clean. They don’t look hungry, they look clean-shaven. You cannot look strong and be able to dance after being abducted for 15 days.”

Koech claimed “someone is playing a game,” with the abduction ordeals and labelled it “staging an act to trigger a series of events.”

The MP urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to interrogate the men released on Monday, “publicly, if possible, so we can know what happened.”

Despite the five men’s release on Monday, Steve Mbisi, also reported missing, had yet to be found. 

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has said it had recorded 13 abduction cases in the last three months to December, bringing to 82 the total number of abductions it noted since the June-July 2024 protests against Ruto’s government over punitive tax policies.

KNCHR said 29 were missing as of December 26.