Ibrahim Mwiti: 24-Year-Old Missing Activist Found Dead
Prior to his death, he earned a living as a delivery man some 45 kilometres away from where he was last seen.
Marvin Chege 
The body of a 24-year-old activist who went missing in November 2024 was found at Thika Level Five Hospital mortuary on Friday, January 3, amidst concerns over the recent and worrying rate of abductions and enforced disappearances in the country.
Ibrahim Hilal Mwiti, who worked as a bodaboda delivery rider in Nairobi went missing in November 2024 sparking speculation over his whereabouts. He was last seen in the Nairobi city centre before he disappeared, prompting a search by his family as his friends resorted to using social media platforms to find him.
The family filed a missing person report at Kamukunji Police Station on November 15, 2024, under OB number 80A/13/11/24. Unfortunately, the family's search ended sorrowfully after identifying his body at a mortuary on January 2, 2025.
Prior to his death, he earned a living as a delivery man some 45 kilometres away from where he was last seen.
Image of a crime scene. /VIRAL TEA KE
The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear, however, his mother Sadhiya Iman told the media “I have looked at his body and it looks like a case of hit and run though I have heard rumours circulating on certain blogs intimating that he was abducted and killed."
She revealed that they had looked for Mwiti almost everywhere before making the painful decision to visit morgues in Nairobi and its environs, a move that eventually landed them at Thika Level Five Mortuary two days ago.
Iman also revealed that prior to his death, Mwiti had lost his ID card and had experienced a lot of trouble securing a replacement, something that made his life unbearable because he would be asked to identify himself whenever he needed a government service or was stopped by police.
However, friends who attended his burial suspected foul play, linking his death to abduction and murder. “The motorbike he was riding when he was involved in an accident was found and taken to a police station but no one at the station took the number plates and searched in the National Transport Safety and Authority (NTSA) to know the details of the next of kin and inform them. We read a foul play in this narrative that it was a hit-and-run, it’s not just adding up,” one remarked.
On his part, Prince Baha, an activist who has been working with the family to trace Mwiti since his disappearance in November, also, disputed claims that it was a hit-and-run. “As a Muslim, our religion does not condone post-mortems but we do not believe this was a hit-and-run case," he stated.
“The family declined to have a post-mortem performed on the body. I looked at the body and there was nothing like hit and run. We are tired of these abductions and later death. Ok, he was just 24 years old and he didn’t deserve this. Let us end abductions in this country,” he said at the cemetery.
Police are yet to issue a statement on Mwiti's case, coming amidst the government being heavily criticised over several abductions in Kenya. Over the past six months, cases of abductions and enforced disappearances have become common as parents living in fear of their youth disappearing without a trace.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, there have been at least 82 cases of abductions since June last year, the period when youths took to the streets to protest against the Finance Bill. In the last three months of 2024, at least 13 cases of abductions were recorded with December alone accounting for seven.
President William Ruto on Friday, January 3 maintained that those responsible for abductions will be held to account. Speaking in Bungoma County after leaders clashed over the recent abductions at the burial of Moses Wetangula's mother, Ruto reiterated that his government would not allow extrajudicial killings.
"We have made it absolutely clear that any criminality must be investigated whether undertaken by citizens, criminals or by the police. It must be investigated. That is my direction and I will repeat it again," he stated. "Anybody in breach must live with the consequences of the law. The IG, Deputy IG, and the DPP know what to do. They run independent institutions and will support them."
