Victor Obure and Cyrus Ombati
Thursday, June 14, 2007
This was after a caller claimed he was detaining the officers near the border and gave senior officers up to Tuesday evening to release the bandits in exchange for the missing officers.
After releasing the suspects, however, police went to the border as per their arrangements with the unidentified caller but found no one.
"The caller switched off his phone and has not called again," said police officers involved in the search for their colleagues.
Police are now looking for the caller believed to be in the locality, and they have asked for help from mobile service providers - Safaricom and Celtel, officials said.
A fresh search for the officers was launched with special teams being sent to the border for negotiations with officials from neighbouring countries.
Reports indicate that the armed officers were abducted by suspected militiamen from Ethiopian.
Anxiety was high after the three officers went missing in mysterious circumstances during a border patrol operation.
Officers in North Eastern Province expressed fears over the fate of their colleagues as their whereabouts remained unknown for the fourth day amid speculations that they might have been kidnapped by ragtag militia forces.
North Eastern Provincial Police Officer, Mr Anthony Kibuchi, was on Monday compelled to cut short a Nairobi trip and fly to Mandera to dispatch emissaries to Ethiopia and Somalia border towns to trace the officers.
Kibuchi held lengthy meetings with crossborder security committees on arrival in the wake of intensive fighting between factional militia forces in Somalia.
Kibuchi, with his CID colleague, Mr John Maritim, were in Mandera making efforts to find the officers.
Officers at the provincial police headquarters said the missing ones had their guns with them when their captors struck.
Preliminary reports into the incident indicated that the foot patrol team comprising the three officers failed to report back to a border point regrouping base after the exercise.
Chances were that the officers might have strayed into a neighbouring country before they were captured by factional militia troops and held hostage at unknown location in Somalia.
Unconfirmed reports also indicate that remnants of the deposed Islamic Court Union forces toppled earlier in the Year by Interim government backed by Ethiopian troops were responsible for the seizure.
It was also alleged that some villagers in border locations spotted Somalia militiamen escorting the officers across the border to Bulla Hawa. A group of elders have reportedly been dispatched to negotiate their release.
But as we went to press, none of the implicated factions in Somalia had publicly claimed responsibility for the alleged abduction or demanded ransom for release of the three as controversy deepened.
Source: Standard, June 14, 2007