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NAIROBI: Three Kenyans at the heart of a high-profile abduction case have been freed, rights groups said on Friday, accusing security forces of keeping them captive for weeks after they took part in anti-government protests.
The three were allegedly abducted by men identifying themselves as police on Aug. 19 in Kitengela, some 30 km south of the capital Nairobi.
Images on social media showed two of the men, looking shaken, following their release late Thursday.
“Our partners have confirmed their release,” said Cornelius Oduor, of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, said.
“(The images) clearly shows that the men were in distress ... It points to the fact that they have been in captivity.”
There has been no confirmation of where Bob Njagi, Aslam Longton and his brother Jamil Longton were held.
But Oduor said: “We strongly believe that they were taken by security agents of Kenya.”
The two brothers were dropped near the capital, according to tweets from the Kenyan Law Society, while Njagi presented himself to a nearby police station.
The case has dominated the Kenyan news in recent days after a court in Nairobi held the acting police chief, Gilbert Masengeli, in contempt for failing to appear to answer questions about the disappearance of the three men.
Having been given seven days to attend court or face a six-month prison sentence, Masengeli made a last-minute appearance on Friday and apologized for his absence, thus avoiding the conviction.
“We believe (the men’s release) was intended to provide immediate grounds for (Masengeli) to challenge his conviction,” said Oduor.
While the contempt charge against Masengeli was dropped, the case into the men’s disappearance was set to continue.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority has said it was looking into multiple complaints of unlawful arrests and abductions in the wake of large-scale anti-government protests that broke out in Kenya in June.
More than 60 people died during the protests themselves, leading to the resignation of police chief Japhet Koome.
Previous abduction cases have sparked furious protests in Kenya.
In February 2023, three police officers were handed sentences ranging from 24 years in jail to the death penalty for the brutal murder of rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two other people.
Their bodies were found wrapped in sacks and dumped in a river outside Nairobi in June 2016.

MOSCOW: Russia on Friday charged four of its soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine with torturing a US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014.
It is rare instance for Russia to accuse active soldiers in Ukraine — who are glorified at home — of committing crimes.
The authorities did not say what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley, who regularly appeared on pro-Kremlin social media channels, backing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.
Known as “Texas,” 64-year-old Bentley was declared dead in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in April. His wife said at the time he had been abducted and killed by Russian troops.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday it had “established all the persons involved in the death of Russell Bentley and the circumstances of the offenses committed.”
It named the four soldiers involved as Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, Andrei Iordanov and Vitaly Vansyatsky.
They are accused of “using physical violence and torture, causing the death of a victim by negligence, as well as the concealment of a particularly serious crime by moving the remains of the deceased to another place,” the committee said.
According to the investigation, the soldiers tortured and killed Bentley in Donetsk on April 8.
Two of them then blew up a military car containing his body, before another moved the remains to cover up the crime, investigators said.
Moscow said the soldiers were “familiarising” themselves with the charge before the case is sent to court.
Bentley, from Austin in Texas, had served in the US army in the 1980s.
He often wore a cap, styled on Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, with a red badge bearing hammer and sickle.