PEOPLE

The family of a Kenya Defence Forces soldier who is reportedly held captive by Al-Shabaab militants for nine years, is calling on the government to assist in the release of their relative. Ibrahim went viral after a widely shared video showed him asking the Kenyan government for help to return home.  Ibrahim, dressed in a KDF uniform, said in the video that he has been held hostage by Al Shabaab in Somalia for nearly nine years. \”I am a Kenyan soldier. I joined the army in 1986. The Al-Shabaab captured me on January 15, 2016, during the Al-Shabaab raid at the KDF camp in El Adde,\” Ibrahim said. Responding to the video, his family narrated the pain they have endured for years, thinking that their long-lost kin is already dead. His daughter Kadra Abdullahi speaking to Citizen TV revealed that she received a call from an unfamiliar number in Somalia about a month before the video of her father went viral. Kadra said the caller identified himself as her long-lost father, leaving her shocked and confused as she struggled to believe the revelation.  \”We didn\’t have proof of him. I asked him to ask the guys holding him to send us a photo or a video of him so we could start a journey of how to help him. He then said that they would reach me through their media link,\” Kadra said.  According to the soldier\’s daughter, they had already come to terms with his death after the KDF issued a death certificate confirming it.  \”We did the burial procedures for my dad because we knew he was no more,\” she said. Abdullahi Issa Ibrahim was among the soldiers captured by militants during the deadly attack on the Kenyan-run AMISOM army base in El-Adde on January 15, 2016. The family now insists that those holding him hostage only wish to communicate with the Kenyan government in order to release him.

A fleet of trucks transporting newly acquired Kenya Defense Forces vehicles on Wednesday caused public excitement from motorists and commuters. The long queue of flatbed trucks was seen at Mlolongo, Machakos, on their way to Nairobi causing a traffic snarl-up on the busy road. Pictures circulating on social media showed tens of trucks neatly arranged in one long queue alongside other motorists. Reports indicate that the police lorries that were mounted on the flatbed trucks were destined for an undisclosed location.   The military vehicles being transported were mixed including 6-wheeled trucks and water trucks. The transportation of military vehicles is a critical component of defense logistics. However, Kenyans took to the internet to express their thoughts about the procession amid a hard economic time. Notably on January12, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen had announced that security agencies including the National Police Service (NPS) and the KDF would receive 3,000 new vehicles.