Narrating his ordeal, Seyidoglu said he returned and found out that at the same time he was kidnapped, seven other friends were abducted but three were later released including a woman and a child.
A British national who is working as an education consultant in Kenya, Necdet Seyidoglu, and was kidnapped alongside four of his friends by armed men suspected to be from Turkish Intelligence, has recounted his ordeal in the hands of his abductors.
Narrating the incident, Seyidoglu who said he has been in Kenya for the past two years narrated that he and his friends were abducted on their way to work by the armed men who were fully armed with masks covering their faces. He noted that the kidnappers covered their faces, drove them for over four hours out of Nairobi into a rural place where they later released him.
He said before he was released, the kidnappers got to a point where they separated him from his friends and forced them into different cars, and that all his efforts to know who the kidnappers were failed as they only told him that they were Special Forces and when he asked what offence they committed, their abductors did not answer.
Narrating his ordeal, Seyidoglu said he returned and found out that at the same time he was kidnapped, seven other friends were abducted but three were later released including a woman and a child.
He said, “In the morning at about 7:00, as usual, I was trying to go to work, one of my friends, his name is Hussein, came and picked me up with his own car.
“When he picked me up, a couple of minutes later, one white car blocked our way. They were four armed people and all of them were wearing masks. I couldn’t see their faces, and all of them had got weapons.
“They pointed these guns at us and they forced us to go with them. We went to their car. As we went with them, they covered our faces and they handcuffed me with my friends.
“At that time, I told them I am a British citizen, I know my rights. What have I done? I was as usual going to work, what is my mistake? Can you tell me? No reply. Who are you? Can you identify yourself?
“They told me, ‘we are from Special Forces’, but you are wearing masks and I can’t see your faces and what is more is that you put something on my face and I’m covered, and as well I can’t see you. At least can you show your ID? They didn’t tell us where we were going and they didn’t answer any of my questions.
“Nearly 3 or 4 hours, we were driven, I think, outside of Nairobi. At that time again I told them I am a British citizen. At that time, one of them wanted me to show my British passport. As I showed him, he took a picture of that and I think he sent it to someone else.
“Then, I didn’t see but from the sounds I realised that they were changing the plate number of their cars. Sometime later, they separated us from my friends into different cars. I was in another car with four other guys. They had weapons. I didn’t see but when I touched them, I realised they have got weapons.
“They left me in a rural place of Nairobi. It was totally unsafe. I didn’t feel comfortable at that moment. They gave me 1,000 Shillings and said, ‘you can go with whatever transport you can choose’.
“I picked up a transport and came to my family, to my friends, but when I came here, what worries me, I realised that in the morning at the same time in four different places, they took seven friends of us including me. They released three of them, one of them is a woman, the other one was a child and the other one is me. I think they didn’t know that I have British citizenship.
“They released me but four of our friends are still missing. We don’t know where they are and we don’t know how we get information about them.”
He further said, “I actually don’t know why they kidnapped me or my friends. It was annoying. We asked them why they were taking us and who they are but for eight hours I didn’t get any single answer about that, and the whole time, I was covered and I couldn’t see anything.”
He said in the first car, his face was covered with something like a black bag but in the second car, the kidnappers put something like a blindfold on his face and he couldn’t see anything.
Asked if he reported the incident to the Kenyan police, he said when he was released, his first motivation was to find his friends.
“I didn’t apply to any single place. I didn’t apply to the British Embassy. I didn’t go to local police officers but I heard that some of my friends have done something like that,” he said.
He said the family members of his friends who are still missing have been crying and asking for their loved ones.
Seyidoglu said, “I feel more and more will come. We need the Kenyan government to support us and if we are guilty, they can speak to us and we deserve what we have done to Kenya, if not, if they are thinking that we are profitable guys to Kenya for education, for orphans, for these activities, if they are thinking that they are good for Kenya, then they need to support us.
“We need that because if we feel unsafe, without any law, illegally we were taken and then most probably they were illegally sent to Turkey, but Kenya is a big country and there are some rules here.”