NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 16- A senior Kenyan police officer was Monday sentenced to five years in prison or alternatively pay a fine of Sh1.1 million for kidnapping two Ethiopian rebels who were on asylum in 2014.
Inspector Painito Bera, was charged with three offences of kidnapping, abuse of office and giving false information to a person employed in the public service over an incident that occurred in 2014 where the accused kidnapped two foreigners who had been granted political asylum in Kenya.
The foreigners were members Ethiopian rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
The officer alongside two other juniors who were later acquitted in the case abducted of Sulub Abdi Ahmed and Ali Ahmed Hussein on January 26, 2014 outside a restaurant in Upperhill area, Nairobi.
Court documents show police believe that after their abduction, Ahmed and Hussein were taken to Ethiopia. It is not clear if they are alive.
The rebels had been calling for an independent state for Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Somalis.
Ahmed and Hussein were part of Ogaden rebel team in Kenya for negotiations with the Ethiopian government.
On the day they were abducted, Ahmed, a negotiator, and Hussein, a member of the negotiation team’s secretariat, were invited for lunch by an unknown person.
When the two walked out of the restaurant after lunch, six men came out of two cars and attempted to grab them but they resisted causing a melee.
Witnesses said Ahmed and Hussein were subdued when one of the abductors pulled out a police identification card and shouted for help from the crowd gathering around to see the commotion claiming that he was arresting two terrorists “who were planning to bomb the country.”
And with help from some people from the crowd the abductors forced Ahmed and Hussein into the cars using blows and kicks.
The two were driven to Moyale, at the Kenyan-Ethiopia border where they were picked up by helicopters
Kenyan government said then they did not know about the incident.
It had apparently been planned by the then Ethiopian military commander in charge of Eastern Command under which the Ogaden region falls.
The incident was reported in local media and later police picked up the investigation that led to the conviction of the senior officer on Monday.
Want to send us a story? Contact Shahidi News Tel: +254115512797 (Mobile & WhatsApp)
