NAIROBI, Kenya-National Intelligence Service Director General Noordin Haji has been thrust into the national limelight after Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi claimed his son had been abducted by his officers.
Muturi in a statement to detectives at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations offices at the Kilimani Police Station said it only took the intervention of President William Ruto to have his son Leslie released.
Leslie had been arrested over June-July 2024 Genz protests, that culminated with the breach of parliament, and deaths of over 60 youthful protestors- largely brandishing a flag and a bottle of water.
“I heard the President ask Noordin Haji if he was holding my son, Noordin confirmed, that indeed he was holding my son and the President instructed him to release Leslie immediately,” the CS said.
“Noordin responded that Leslie would be released within an hour.” And true to his word, the son was released slightly after an hour.
His statement comes days after the police asked him to provide information about the abduction incident that occurred on June 22, 2024.
A cabinet secretary’s son was abducted by the National Intelligence Service. It took a call from the president to have him released. This account from Justin Muturi is as dramatic as it is disturbing.
Leslie was abducted by armed and hooded men in Lavington. At that point, the Cabinet Secretary was serving as Kenya’s Attorney General.
In the letter, Muturi narrated how he made frantic calls to government officials among them the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof Kithure Kindiki, former Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome, and Interior Principal Secretary Dr Raymond Omollo.
At the point of his abduction, Muturi’s son was in the company of MP Mark Mwenje.
The CS learned of his abduction while in the company of his friend Paul Muthoka. The abductors were driving a white Prad.
The then AG had tried to call DCI Mohammed Amin but his call went unanswered including that of Haji.
The then-police boss had alluded to the incident being a robbery, but CS Muturi insisted that the personnel who had abducted him appeared to have been security personnel rather than robbers.
“He seemed unconvinced, stating that there was no planned police operation that night,” he said.
It is the Citizen Television management that assisted the CS with the CCTV footage of the incident.
