Some Nigerian nationals in Kenya also blame the alleged negligence of the Nigerian High Commission in the East African country for the targeted killings and forceful disappearance of Nigerians they say are going on in the country.
One of the justifications Kenyan police officers give for assaulting Nigerians in their country is that Nigeria Police treat Nigerians worse, Nigerians in Kenya have told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters learnt some Kenyan police officers go as far as making reference to the harsh treatment of protesters during the #EndSARS protests of October 2020, when some protesters were killed across the country and several others were injured. Many protesters were also arrested and detained, with some still languishing in detention almost two years after.
Some Nigerians in Kenya also capitalise on the Nigerian government's negligence and failure to defend the interest of its nationals abroad to brutalise and assault Nigerians in the country. Some Nigerian nationals in Kenya also blame the alleged negligence of the Nigerian High Commission in the East African country for the targeted killings and forceful disappearance of Nigerians they say are going on in the country.
Anthony Anamonye, a Nigerian victim of police brutality in Kenya who narrated his nightmares and ordeals at the hands of Kenyan police officers said he sent an official report to the Nigerian High Commissioner to Kenya, Ambassador Alhaji Yusuf Yunusa on November 29, 2021, titled "Brutality, National Profiling and Xenophobic Attacks," which he described as targeting Nigerians in Kenya. The report was reportedly handed over to Mr. Godwin Ibrahim of the Consular Section, but it was allegedly swept under the carpet.
A copy of the report which was made available to the SaharaReporters revealed that Anthony was confronted by some police officers in Nairobi Industrial Area on Friday, November 26, 2021, He said he was assaulted by the police for putting on a face mask with the colours of the Nigerian flag (Green and white).
“The police officers removed the face mask from Anthony's face, handcuffed him and had him beaten and was taken to an isolated location around the popular National Archives, Nairobi where a number of about eight police officers who were heavily armed with guns hid in dark awaiting potential victims,” the report said.
Anthony, according to the report sent to the high commission, was detained by the police officers for over three hours. He was reportedly compelled to contact his family back home in Nigeria to send him some money to be used as ransom.
Anthony, who spoke to SahaRareporters, narrated that he was unable to convince his family or friends to send him money. “The police officers at gunpoint collected my phone and insisted that I must transfer money to them even if it means transportation money to my residence.
“After realising that I am not buoyant enough to fund their request, I was forced to transfer the sum of 1,000 Kenyan Shillings equivalent to $10 to a certain telephone number +254757188357 with the name Risper Nduki Nzioka.
“This however was the ransom that must be paid in order to save my life at that moment from the brutal officers who roamed about the streets in search of Nigerians,” he said.
He, however, told SaharaReporters that the Nigerian High Commission in Nairobi was furnished with the details including an official M-PESA Statement from Safaricom to ease an investigation into the matter but that to date, the Commission has remained silent on the issue.
The distressed Nigerian who moved to Mombasa a few months later to pursue a programme disclosed to SaharaReporters that on March 19, 2022, a set of four police officers who chose to hide their identities invaded his house, claiming they were determined to clamp down on Nigerians dating Kenyan women - an attitude he described as xenophobic.
He said he managed to identify two among the four officers as Esther Comboi through the following numbers (+254728118654) and David Mungai (+254721404078), all from Bamburi Police Station, Mombasa County, Kenya.
Anthony said the police officers used a machine to pull down his iron door and grievously assaulted him to such an extent that he had to go for medical examination at Kenya's Coast General Hospital where it was ascertained that he (Anthony) was dangerously wounded in his right eye and right hand. According to him, without a search warrant, the police officers engaged in the robbery as they stole his money, phone, and other valuables and damage his laptop among others.
He said his valid passport was seized in what he described as pure contempt for the Nigerian State. “This however is not the first time Kenyan police officers have engaged in tearing Nigerian passports,” he alleged.
He said the officers not contented with the beatings, handcuffed and further sexually assaulted him while he sought to use the washroom before he was whisked off to Bamburi Police Station in a white private car used by the police for the operation. Anthony said the identities of the police officers have been concealed by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), especially the IPOA officer entrusted with the investigation of the matter.
He said, “It was at the Bamburi Police Station where I was forced to call my family and friends, as usual, to send me more money to the tune of 22,000 Kenyan Shillings via a third party MPESA at the station. My request to be charged to court was frustrated by the police and the police officers threatened to kill me if I dared to insist on taking the legal route.
“The Independent Policing Authority Oversight, Mombasa has remained an accomplice in all of these brutalities and attacks. Their actions since March show total indifference and an attempt to cover up for all the police officers involved in the act. The most pathetic part of these unfortunate incidents is that the Nigerian High Commission in Nairobi categorically claimed to be incapable of doing anything.”
Meanwhile, some Nigerians in Kenya have accused the Nigerian High Commissioner to the East African country, Yunusa of often abandoning his duty post to go to Egypt for medical treatment as he is allegedly suffering from a stroke. Meanwhile, they alleged that no action can be taken in his absence.
“How come the High Commissioner who was commended (by the government) for the crucial role he played in the extraordinary rendition of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu to Nigeria, cannot defend the patriotic citizens of Nigeria under his watch in Kenya?” one of the Nigerians in Kenya said.
“Without mixing up issues, it is crystal clear that the High Commissioner is selective in the discharge of his duties,” another Nigerian in Kanya, Kayode Adelani told SaharaReporters.
“Anthony has brought the attention of Ambassador Nicholas Ella, the Director of Legal and Consular Department, Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja to these pressing issues. Yet there is no action.
“This has wounded the confidence of the patriotic Nigerians in Kenya who now prefer that the diplomatic relationship between Nigeria and Kenya be put to an end with immediate effect as only the people related to the Ambassador are protected in Kenya while the life of every other Nigerian does not matter.
“There is a clear collaboration between the Kenyan police as similar incidents repeated themselves on June 11, 2022, when Mr. Anthony alongside one other Nigerian national was abducted close to Mtwapa Mall, Kilifi County just barely two days after Anthony left the Nigerian High Commission where he had gone to follow up on what was happening regarding his stolen passport.
“The victim who spoke to us stated that the principal Kenyan police officer called Diba of Mtwapa Police Station, a notorious Kenyan police officer known for abduction of foreigners in the name of police, at gunpoint forced Anthony and the other Nigerian national into his Ford vehicle.
“Diba, the notorious officer of Mtwapa Police Station had requested the sum of $3,000 from each of the Nigerians. However, this request was rejected by the young Nigerians. When the request of the officer, Diba was turned down by the two Nigerians he had held captive, the police officers at that point instantly confiscated their telephones and hurriedly dialled the telephone number of the Deputy Officer Commanding Station, in the person of Kharmar Abdullahi Gergio.”
Kayode, who lamented the harsh treatment of Nigerians in the foreign country, said the Deputy OCS asked the Nigerians to cooperate with her colleague, Diba by giving him the money requested or be ready to suffer or even disappear.
“It was at that point Diba, the Mtwapa Police DCI confiscated Anthony's Residence Permit in addition to the passport in possession of his colleagues in a neighbouring police station called Bamburi,” he said.
The drama took an ugly turn when the officer drove the two Nigerians to Mtwapa Police Station where they were forced to disclose the passwords to unlock their mobile phones to Diba. He alleged that Diba took possession of the phones to ensure that the Nigerians could not establish communications with anyone outside. He further alleged that Diba browsed through Anthony’s phone.
“It was reported that a kind police officer who knew about Mr. Anthony’s ordeal with the Bamburi Police Station and had issued him a Police Abstract in connection to the stolen passport acted out of compassion by contacting one police officer, Zablon Ondieki, who is in charge of tourists and foreigners in that jurisdiction and police station.
“The said officer happened to have been mandated by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to investigate the invasion of Anthony’s house that led to the disappearance of his passport and other properties. Unfortunately, the said Zablon, however, collaborated with his other police colleagues to ensure that the whereabouts of the Nigerians remain unknown to the public and anyone,” Kayode decried.
Another Nigerian national in Kenya, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told SaharaReporters that following the enforced disappearance of Nigerians in Kenya, a kind police officer sent a trustworthy motorcyclist, one Mr. Justine Thoya to go to Anthony’s apartment to alert his landlady, Mrs. Tilphonia Nwachoma, the owner of the popular Global Africa hotel, Mtwapa. The landlady reportedly took the documents of the Nigerians to the police station.
He noted that while the other Nigerian who preferred to remain anonymous for the sake of his life chose to pay a ransom of $850 to Diba and some other police officers, Anthony refused to pay any ransom and insisted on either being killed or charged to court.
Anthony, however, explained that all attempts by her landlady to get him released were not successful until a lawyer was involved. According to him, he was later bailed with $300 after spending two days in detention. “Till date, no clear explanation was given for my arrest and detention. The Mtwapa police boss, Biberone U. and (OCS) connived with Diba by refusing to return the cash bail until the intervention of Mr. Joshua Kakundi of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), Mombasa,” he said.
SaharaReporters was informed that one Raymond Edet and Godwin Ibrahim Yonder from the Nigerian High Commission, accompanied by Mr. Sunday Benjamin a Nigerian pastor based in Mombasa recently visited the Mombasa office of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority after some initial hesitation.
Their aim, according to sources, was to explore diplomatic means to intervene and prevent more Nigerians from being brutalised and assaulted by the police in the foreign country.
It was gathered their visit to the police station to get Anthony's passport which was seized in March 2022 returned to him, was futile. They were reportedly turned down and told to use official diplomatic means to communicate with them, through the Kenyan Inspector General of Police if the Nigerian High Commission was serious.
Anthony, who said his Residence Permit was still with Mtwapa Police Station, feared it might be used it for criminal acts.
“This document is known as Kenya’s Foreigners Certificate (Alien Card),” he said, adding that while Mtwapa police are “withholding his Alien Card, their colleagues at Bamburi Police Station have refused to release his passport to the High Commission.”
Anthony told SaharaReporters that due to the issue with his passport, he missed his visa appointment with the US Embassy in Nairobi on July 25. He lamented that the Kenyan police have succeeded in stripping him of his means of identification, a situation he said has subjected him to danger.
He also lamented that Nigerians with valid visas are constantly arrested once they land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
After their arrest, they are taken to the Office of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation, Nairobi where they are always robbed of their money and other valuables before being allowed to go. According to him, their only offence is having Nigerian passports.
“The High Commission of Nigeria in Kenya has been alerted on different occasions, but would always claim that they (the Nigerian diplomats) are also victims of the same police brutality in Kenya,” Anthony said.
He quoted one Dr. Victory Jaja of the Nigerian High Commission, Nairobi to have said that even with a diplomatic passport, Kenyan police officers have harassed him on different occasions and also browsed through his phone against his wish.
“If our diplomats are humiliated in this manner, then who is safe? For lack of better words, the situation is a direct attack on the Nigerian state whose implications are unknown to the Nigerian government. Urgent intervention is needed,” he said.
“We have no High Commission. The Kenyan police officers constantly make reference to the killings of Nigerians at Lekki Tollgate during the #EndSARS protests as a justification for the brutality meted out to Nigerians right from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport down to their bedrooms.”
“How is that the business of Kenya?” he asked. “The fact that I beat my children does not give you the right to beat them.”
“No one is safe here! I am calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to do the needful without delay. The only justice we get in Kenya is an autopsy. I do not need such justice!” he said.
When SaharaReporters contacted the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), its spokesperson, Abdurrahmaan Balogun, said the Commission is aware of the matter.
He, however, added that the matter is within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"I think that matter is within the jurisdiction of foreign affairs. This is a consular matter so, I will direct you to link up with the Director of Consular, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So, they are the ones in charge of that matter though we are aware," he said.
However, efforts to speak with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not successful as its spokesperson, Mrs Pascali Omayuli did not answer her calls or respond to a text message sent to her.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Nigerian High Commissioner in Kenya, Ambassador Alhaji Yunusa were also unsuccessful as calls to the commission’s telephone lines indicated that they were not available.