The family of Morris Mabior Awikjok, a political and human rights activist, is calling for his immediate release after he was picked up last Saturday from his home in Nairobi by armed men in police uniform and taken to an unknown location.
Mabior has been seeking asylum in Nairobi, Kenya, since 2021 after a fallout with some government officials in South Sudan.
His wife, Angelina Aliet Marol, who was with him at the time of his arrest told Radio Tamazuj that the armed men came into their house, ransacked it, and allegedly seized their phones, laptops, and other valuables before handcuffing her husband.
“I tried to find out where they were taking my husband, but they were threatening me with weapons. So, I told them to take me as well but they forcefully pushed me from the car and I fell. Then they ran away,” she narrated.
According to Aliet, she reported the matter to a nearby police station and was informed that her husband was at a Nairobi police station.
However, she says she was shocked to read from a South Sudanese newspaper that her husband had been extradited to South Sudan.
Until now, she said they had not heard from him or seen him and had no idea whether he was alive or dead.
Marial Achut Anthony, Mabior’s second wife who is based in Juba confirmed that their husband had been kidnapped and she had not seen him nor heard from him and had no idea where he was.
Achut said her husband left the country after being threatened by National Security agents for an article he had written.
“My husband has been in Nairobi, Kenya for two years now. There was a small problem and people from the National Security from Tonj came and they threatened him in front of me,” she stated. “They said he wrote an article in the media about national security, and they asked him why he wrote that article. My husband apologized but they denied his apology and that was the problem.”
Amnesty International has since condemned Awikjok’s arbitrary arrest and detention. In a statement, Amnesty International Executive Director Houghton Irungu urged the Kenyan and South Sudan governments to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Awikjok.