Busia senator Okiya Omtatah has revealed details about his meeting with popular X platform influencer and cartoonist Gideon Kibet also known as Kibet Bull or Yoko, who has been missing after he was allegedly abducted.
Kibet has been missing since he met up with Omtatah, with a section of Kenyans accusing the Senator of being behind his abduction.
The Busia senator in a press briefing on December 26, 2024, revealed the intrigues behind his meeting with Kibet while calling for the unconditional release of the Egerton University student and other missing youth.
According to Omtatah, Kibet had requested a meeting with him at his office on the day he disappeared.
“Kibet visited my office on December 24 between 11 am and 4 pm. He came to introduce himself to me and to explore a path to join my team before his scheduled flight on Friday, December 27, (tomorrow) to Israel to join Tel Aviv University for further studies. He informed me that he is a very strong supporter of what I do and that he had travelled to Nairobi from Nakuru that morning just to meet me before flying out,” said Omtatah.
Also Read: Kibet Bull: Influencer Behind Ruto’s Caricatures Reported Missing
Omtatah explains meeting with Kibet
The Presidential hopeful said that the missing youth revealed that he would be staying at his brother’s home in Kikuyu, Kiambu County, until his departure, adding that he did not express any fears of his safety.
He further called out the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) while expressing his fears that the directorate could have tracked Bull to his office.
Omtatah said that a suspicious white Subaru Forester vehicle with surveillance equipment followed Yoko to his office, waited, and left shortly after his driver dropped the cartoonist at Kencom where he was to board a bus to Kikuyu.
The senator believes this vehicle was linked to Yoko’s abduction by unnamed DCI officers.
“I believe he was abducted by DCI officers, as soon as he arrived at my office my security detail told me they were monitoring a Subaru which was mounted with spy gadgets used to intercept communications. It was parked across the road from my office. It stayed at that location and left after Mr. Kibet left,” the Senator told journalists.
Okiya says that on learning of the abduction, his team conducted a search on the mysterious vehicle on the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) portal where it emerged that it belonged to a person named Caroline.
Omtatah claimed that there is collusion by the state and that the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and DCI boss Mohamed Amin should be held accountable for the recent abductions.
Popular cartoonist Kibet Bull goes missing
On Wednesday, Omtatah had denied claims that he played a role in the alleged abduction of the popular satirist.
He dismissed a previous tweet shared by political activist Francis Gaitho who had, in his tweet, claimed that the senator was working with ‘the regime’ to sell out young activists and aid in their arrest and/or abduction.
Also Read: Police IG Clarifies Alleged Abductions of Kibet Bull & Three Others
Omtatah’s response comes following widespread reports that Kibet Bull, who shot to fame after dedicating his X activities to sharing critical silhouettes, had gone missing.
The popular cartoonist’s last activity on X was on December 24 at around 17:39 hours in which he shared two of his silhouettes.
Kibet’s family while speaking to Citizen Digital said that their kin went missing while he was on a mission to follow up on his brother’s disappearance.
According to the family, Bull’s brother Rony Kiplangat has also been missing since Saturday as the family thought he had gone to church.
“We waited until evening and as we tried calling him, he could not be reached. We thought he had gone for a church service at SDA Kikuyu. Then we sent his friend to check if he was in the house. He said Kiplangat was not in the house,” their sister Mercy Cherotich said in a phone interview.
Kibet then embarked on a journey from Njoro to Nairobi to follow up and was also to attend a function with Senator Omtatah.
The sister noted that after the function ended, Kibet boarded a vehicle back to his friend’s home in Kikuyu but did not arrive with the cartoonist remaining unreachable on phone since then.
Police IG breaks silence over alleged abductions
IG Kanja however on Thursday, December 26, denied the allegations linking police to recent abductions witnessed in the country.
“The National Police Service is deeply concerned with the ongoing allegations that Police Officers are involved in abductions of persons in Kenya. For clarity, the Constitutional mandate of the National Police Service is not to abduct but arrest criminal offenders,” read part of his statement.
Kanja explained that according to the Service Standing Orders, all arrests must be recorded in the Occurrence Book. In addition, those arrested are then to be arraigned in court, or released from custody if they do not meet the procedural threshold for detention.
He further reiterated that the National Police Service is not involved in any abductions, stating categorically, “There is no police station in the country holding the reported abductees.
Kanja however cautioned social media users to be responsible when posting information online, even though the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression.
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