Former Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju has been arrested a day after he was reported to have disappeared, leading to fears he may have been abducted. Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin said in a press conference that Tuju was inside his residence the whole time, describing it as a “carefully staged disappearance rather than a genuine case of abduction”. Just before his arrest, Tuju had told local station Citizen TV that he had gone into hiding after being followed by an unmarked vehicle.
The former minister has been embroiled in a long-running legal battle contesting the auction and takeover of his properties in Nairobi over an unsettled bank loan. Amin said: “The deliberate conduct by Raphael Tuju appears to be a calculated effort to deceive the public to generate unwarranted sympathy and to undermine the integrity of the National Police Service.” He added that the police view “the provision of false information to authorities as a very, very serious offence”. Tuju told Citizen that on realising he was being trailed, he had branched off onto a road where it would be more difficult to follow him.
Once he had shaken off the other vehicle, he then abandoned his car which he knew they would be looking for. He added: “My family is very traumatised… and I consider myself blessed because there are many Kenyans in unmarked graves,” he said, thanking Kenyans and opposition politicians who had stood by him.
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He mentioned other Kenyans who had been abducted or killed in the past, explaining that this was why he had not sought police help and instead went into hiding. Earlier, the police had said they were investigating his reported disappearance and appealed to the public for information.
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