Deported
woman ‘executed’ in Somalia
A
citizen of the United Arab Emirates deported last month by the government
to Somalia may have been executed; friends and relatives have expressed
their worst fears.
Milly Muthoni Gakuo, a business associate of Tuwein Kamilya said
the family had got reports-though still unconfirmed-that she was
executed by the Somalia Transitional Federal Government soon after
her deportation on January 27.
Immigration minister Gideon Konchellah issued the deportation order
which indicated that she “was a dangerous person in Kenya.”
Anti-terrorist police unit arrested the duo on January 10 at Malindi’s
Eden Rock hotel together with two Omanis, Ahmed Musallam Alma’ashaani
and Hassan Salim Kashub for being Al-Qaeda members plotting terrorist
activities in the country. The visitors were in the country exploring
investment opportunities in the tea industry.
Addressing
a public forum organised by the state human rights watchdog, the
Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) last week at the
Hilton hotel in Nairobi, Milly said the police demanded $5,000 for
their release but they refused to part with the money arguing they
were in the country legally with valid documents. A contingent of
heavily armed policemen numbering 30 in four vehicles which turned
up at the hotel pointed to what was in store for them. They were
driven to Mombasa and thereafter to Nairobi where they made their
first stop at the ATPU headquarters before being taken to Kileleshwa
police station.
“I was interrogated by the FBI about my terrorist activities.
It was my first time to see the FBI,” she told an attentive
audience at the hotel.
While in detention, she narrated that the two men who belonged to
the Omani royal family were stripped naked and photographed by the
police. A similar action on the women aborted after they strongly
resisted the humiliating and dehumanising moves. “I told them
I was a Mau Mau fighter and Kamilya refused saying that as a Muslim
woman she could not sacrifice her honour as a Muslim woman.”
A friendly policeman saved her day after he called her family who
went ahead and filed a habeas corpus demanding her production in
court or her release. She was bundled in the car and dumped at the
Ambassador bus stop after a 17-day ordeal in custody.
Her colleagues were not lucky. The two men were deported back to
Omani after the government apparently realised the diplomatic row
it would ignite. For Kamilya, who was born in Zanzibar, her descent
was revisited as the government attempted to send her to Tanzania
through Namanga. Tanzanian authorities refused to accept her pushing
the immigration minister to issue a deportation order to Somalia.
Attempts by the KNHRC to seek redress from the internal security
minister to have her deportation rescinded and more investigations
carried out went unheeded. Despite having a first class return air
ticket to Dubai, Kamilya was on January 27 deported to Somalia.
A passenger manifest for African Express Airline flight number 5Y-AYF
released by the police had her name appearing on top of the list.
The
family now fears that she could be among the people who were executed
by the Somalia’s Transition Federal Government, a coalition
of mainly former warlords who are responsible for the 16 years of
anarchy and civil strife in the country.
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