Puzzle of missing South Sudanese national abducted from his Nairobi home by alleged police officers

The family of a South Sudanese political and human rights activist, who has been living in Kenya for the last two years, is in distress after their kin was arrested on Saturday last week by unknown people and taken to an undisclosed location.

Morris Mabior Awikjok, who was seeking asylum in Kenya following a fallout with some government officials back in South Sudan, was taken by armed people believed to be police officers from his Kangundo Road house in Nairobi.

Angelina Aliet, the wife of the missing activist, claims that five men and a woman trailed her husband from a nearby shop to the house and demanded that she opens the door.

According to Aliet, the armed men, who came in two vehicles, ransacked the house without uttering a word. They allegedly confiscated their phones, laptops and other valuables before handcuffing her husband.

"He always said that he was not happy with how the South Sudanese government was doing things. He always questioned the government and held it responsible for all the suffering in South Sudan," Aliet told Citizen TV's Emily Chebet.

"He talked about these issues constantly; about corruption and about how one man is treating South Sudan like he owns it himself. He believed that this man is holding the democracy of a country in his hands and destroying the country," one of Awikjok's kin said.

Four days later, the family of Awikjok has no idea of his whereabouts with a few social media posts indicating that he may have been taken back to his country.

"I don't know whether the people who took him were from the Kenya government or South Sudan's," said Aliet

"They have not informed us of his arrest and nobody has confirmed anything to us. We suspect that he may have fallen just like the rest of the people that were taken from Kenya and were assassinated," Awikjok's kin added.

Two police officers stationed at Hurligham East police post, just meters from Awikjok's house, told Citizen TV that officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) based in Nairobi area abducted Awikjok but the unit has since denied the claims.

Amnesty International has since condemned Awikjok's arbitrary arrest and detention. In a statement, Amnesty International Executive Director Houghton Irungu urged the Kenyan and South Sudan governments to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Awikjok.