Four
year old Hafswa freed after terror ordeal
Little Hafswa Swaleh Ali, the four and half year-old girl whose
imprisonment generated pain and anger against the so-called war
on terror, has a reason to celebrate as a free person. She was quietly
released from Hardy Police station in Karen on Monday afternoon
together with her mother Fatma Ahmed. Previously held at the Inland
Container Depot (ICD) police station, police transferred them last
Friday to Hardy apparently to escape the media hype which followed
their illegal incarceration.
In an apparent show of their humane side, the anti-terror police
drove them all the way to Mombasa. This was a far cry from how they
were brought to Nairobi, blindfolded and handcuffed.
Also released was Halima Hashim, an expectant mother who had been
under custody at Spring Valley Police station. She won her freedom
at 8pm and was also promptly dropped at the gate of her family home
in Nairobi’s South ‘C’ estate. As has happened
in previous terror arrests, no charges were brought forward against
the minor and the two women. Their release further give weight to
the claims by Muslim leaders and human rights groups that the government
is in the business of harassing innocent people on the basis of
their faith.
While in custody, attempts by family members to have the girl released
and taken by her grandmother were repeatedly turned down.
Last week, human rights groups sent a petition to the President
demanding the release of the minor and all those illegally held
in custody over alleged terrorism links. The petition called the
incarceration of the young girl “a serious violation of the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child” which
has been ratified by the government
The police were accused of disregarding established laws in cases
where alleged terrorists were involved. “If the written law
and the authority of the courts are being ignored by a government
that was elected on the basis of upholding the same law, where then
is the government deriving the legitimacy of the actions that it
is taking in this campaign?” queried the petition which was
signed by among others Beatrice Kamau of the Kenya National Human
Rights Commission (KNHRC).
But as the families were celebrating the release, three more children
were being held at Spring Valley police station with their father
Daniel Joseph an African-American revert to Islam. The children,
Muhammad, 9, Rahma,3, and six months old Sumaya were spending time
at the station after their arrest near the Kenyan border with Somalia.
The children’s mother died in Somalia from Malaria.
On Tuesday night, The Friday Bulletin saw the children being taken
away from the station to be flown back to the United States to stay
with their grandmother who lives in Boston. A US embassy Toyota
Landcruiser 29CD389K was at the station to take them away.
Talking to The Friday Bulletin, nine year old Muhammad Daniel expressed
regret that his father was in need of dire help. “My dad needs
help, he is vomiting, has diarrhoea and he is only receiving little
help.”
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