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Did this activist fake her own kidnap on Mombasa Road?


Damning discrepancies have appeared in an activist’s story about being kidnapped on Mombasa Road in Nairobi by men in civilian clothes on Tuesday.

Mildred Atieno Owiso, 40, popularly known as Mildred Atty claimed she was abducted on Tuesday while she was on her way to the Central Police Station in Nairobi to deliver a notice on a planned demonstration.

Ms Owiso sent a distress call to her close friends at 8am on Tuesday, alleging that she had been picked by some people and asked to switch off her phone.

When information of the alleged abduction went viral online, Nation crime desk contacted the police.

NO RECORD

Police said there was no record that she was booked in any of the police stations in the city.

Interestingly, her WhatsApp was active and was online on several intervals during the time that she said she was ‘abducted’.

When the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, which she is a member, sent a press statement, alleging that Ms Owiso’s phone was off, she was online on WhatsApp at 12.34pm.

A press invite sent to the media at 5pm, stated that Ms Owiso had been traced, and that she was traumatised but not physically hurt.

“She says she was abducted by men in civilian who were in a white saloon car. They took her to a place near Syokimau and interrogated her about the planned protest and who is funding it,” the statement said.

Going by the statement, the police tracked the history of her phone and said that the signals were only traced between Umoja 1 and Tena estates and the Central Business District.

DIFFERENT NAME

The police have also revealed that the number she uses and which was circulated by her friends is registered under the name ‘Walter Ogadho Lusi’.

Ms Owiso in an interview with Nation said that her abductors told her they know her and had her picture.

The activist, who is behind #BuyerBeAwareke campaign, is also the whistle-blower in the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) rape allegations, the Olive Gardens breastfeeding ban saga and several others.