Kenyan soldiers still missing as military remains cagey

[Deeq A.]

NIAROBI (Caasimada Online) —Three Kenya Defence Forces soldiers have been missing since July 24, 2011 while on their routine supply duties at military bases in Wajir County near Kenya border along Somalia.

The soldiers lost their way and found themselves deep inside Somalia, according to Assistant Minister for Defence Joseph Nkaiserry.

Nkaiserry said the three, Sergeant Said Abdulaziz Haji (driver of the vehicle), Senior Sergeant Jonathan Kipkosgei Kangogo and Corporal Evans Mutoro, were 60km astray in Somalia when they were intercepted by soldiers from Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Mr Nkaiserry added that Sgt Haji stayed with the TFG troops, who later delivered him and his truck to his Kenyan counterparts, while Sgt Kangogo and Cpl Mutoro escaped, fearing that they were in enemy hands.

“Up to now, their whereabouts remain unknown,” Mr Nkaiserry, who passed away in June last year, said at the time.

He had been promoted to Cabinet Secretary for Interior at the time of his death.

PRISONERS

It later emerged that the two soldiers fell into the hands of the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab insurgents, who had started making incursions into Kenyan territory in their attempts to establish an Islamic republic in Somalia.

The two soldiers became the first Kenyan Prisoners of War (PoW), though it would be another four months before Kenyan troops crossed into Somalia in their first ever foreign incursion to pursue the militants.

On October 16, 2011, a battalion of Kenyan troops crossed into Somalia to commence “Operation Linda Nchi” (Operation Protect the Country), which the government said was aimed at neutralising the threat posed by Al-Shabaab.

It was hoped that this mission would also lead to the rescue of the two Kenyan soldiers.

But seven years down the line, nothing much has been heard from the government or the Department of Defence (DoD) about their fate.

MURDER

Such official silence embitters Ms Rose Kigen, wife of Sgt Kangogo. Her husband had served in the military for 14 years until his abduction.

“I wish the military would be more forthcoming with clearer information about him,” the mother of three said.

In February 2013, the insurgents claimed to have executed Sgt Kangogo following the expiry of a deadline they had given the Kenyan government to pull out its troops.

Al-Shabaab never released any video of his killing, as it does with those of other captive African Union peacekeeping soldiers.

“I still have hope that he is still alive and well. Maybe sick, but alive,” Mrs Kigen said.

She had hoped for answers when she visited the Department of Defence (DoD) on Tuesday this week to apply for a certificate of presumption of death, a document which will enable the military to legally declare her husband “missing in action”.

FAMILY

In turn, this will allow the military to process the full compensation due to her husband.

“But even if I get the money, there will always be a hole in my heart, not knowing about his whereabouts,” she said.

During her husband’s seven-year absence, their three children have grown to “fine” teenagers, she said.

First born Millicent Chepchumba, 23, expects to graduate from Kenya Medical Training College, Nakuru, in December.

Second born Edmond Kipngetich, 21, joined the National Youth Service in April this year, while last born Mercy Cheptoo is in Form Two at St Alphonsus Mutei Girls Secondary School.

Despite the lack of information from DoD about her husband, she is glad that the military paid out her husband’s full salary, enabling her to educate the children.

COMPENSATION

Ms Juliet Nekesa, the elder sister of Stg Mutoro, said the DoD split his salary between his wife Sylvia and their elderly parents. “Of course, Sylvia got more because of the children,” she said.

Sgt Mutoro joined the military in 2007 and had barely served four years before his disappearance.

He and his wife have a daughter who is in Grade Two at a public school in Kakamega.

“He is 35 years now and I am sure he would be doing splendid things for himself,” Ms Nekesa said.

“I raised him as if he was my own son. His disappearance has devastated me as much as it has our parents.”

Since Sgt Kangogo and Cpl Mutoro were abducted before Operation Linda Nchi commenced, their families cannot benefit from the enhanced compensation package paid out to families of soldiers killed under the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), of which KDF is part of.