NAIROBI, Kenya – Questions are emerging over gaps in the account given by former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju following his mysterious disappearance that lasted nearly 48 hours.
While Tuju has since resurfaced, detailing how he allegedly evaded a vehicle trailing him before going into hiding, several key aspects of the timeline remain unclear.
Tuju was last seen on Saturday afternoon, after which his phone went off and he failed to attend a scheduled media interview later that evening, raising the first alarm.
Hours later, his vehicle was discovered abandoned along Miotoni Lane in Karen, with police confirming that a missing person report had been filed at Karen Police Station.
However, it remains unclear how Tuju moved from the point where he abandoned his vehicle to Kiambu, where he now claims he was sheltered by a Good Samaritan family.
He has not disclosed how long he stayed there or how he coordinated his reappearance.
Another gap lies in communication.
Despite earlier reporting the alleged surveillance to police, Tuju has not explained why he went completely off-grid for hours, switching off his phone even as his family and authorities searched for him.
Questions have also been raised about why he did not immediately contact authorities or publicly raise alarm after reaching safety, especially given the seriousness of his claims of being trailed by an unmarked vehicle.
Further complicating the narrative is the timeline of events leading up to his disappearance.
Tuju had days earlier written to the Inspector General of Police seeking protection and had complained about suspicious individuals and vehicles around his Karen property.
He was also embroiled in a high-stakes property dispute and had accused security officers of unlawfully occupying his premises, raising the possibility of multiple overlapping factors surrounding the incident.
Even as Tuju maintains he narrowly escaped what he believes could have been an abduction, authorities are yet to publicly confirm or verify his claims.
With investigations ongoing, the unanswered questions are likely to fuel further scrutiny over what exactly transpired during the critical hours when the former Cabinet Secretary vanished without a trace.
