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DCI wants two who sold woman to slavery denied bond

A man during a protest against slavery of migrants in Libya
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has opposed bail and bond terms for two Somali nationals accused of selling their counterpart to slavery in Libya.
Abdikadir Ahmed Mohamed and Mohamed Ahmed Ahmed Afrah were on Monday charged with trafficking a refugee woman to the North African country.
The two are accused of trafficking the woman by recruiting and transporting her for purposes of exploitation due to her position of vulnerability as a refugee – between November 2 last year and January 2 this year.
The two suspects are also charged with unlawfully being in Kenya.
They are accused of luring the victim out of Hagdera refugee camp in Garissa, taking her to JKIA and flying her to Khartoum, Sudan, from where she was transferred to Libya.
Detective constable Peter Karanja of DCI’s Transnational Organised Crimes Unit wants the duo remanded because of their likelihood to interfere with ongoing efforts to rescue the victim.
The victim is held by rebels who bought her mid last month allegedly from the two suspects and are demanding Sh1 million ransom from her family to free her.
Mr Karanja made an application before Makadara Chief Magistrate Heston Nyaga.
“If released, they might communicate with her abductors which might endanger her life and not only her, but her relatives who reported the incident to police,” Mr Karanja said.
“Afrah is a flight risk because he is a foreigner facing serious charges and, if released, we might not trace him.”
But the suspects’ lawyers dismissed Mr Karanja’s application as baseless because “he did not table anything or give a compelling reason as to why the suspects’ rights to freedom should be curtailed”.
The victim is said to have reached out to her mother through WhatsApp and informed her family of her predicament in mid-December last year.
She said she was in detention with others and gave the mobile phone number of Mr Mohamed who had moved her to JKIA before taking a flight to Khartoum. Mr Afrah procured travel documents for the victim.
The case was reported at Shauri Moyo police station and the two suspects were arrested.
Mr Nyaga will rule on Wednesday on whether or not to remand the suspects after Mr Karanja files an affidavit to support his application.

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