Police on Monday evening raided and ransacked the house of a Mombasa politician Salim Mohamed popularly known as ‘Tenge’ who has gone missing.
The whereabouts of the politician who twice unsuccessfully contested for the Mvita parliamentary seat on a Jubilee ticket remains a mystery.
His wife, Hafsa Swaleh, on Tuesday, narrated to journalists how six police officers in search of her husband left their house in disarray.
She said it’s only after the police raid at about 7 pm that it dawned on the family that he was missing and that could not be reached on the phone.
“They came persistently knocking down on the door and wanted to know if my husband was in the house,” she said.
She said after she let in the officers they started ransacking the house saying they were looking for Mohamed without giving her any reasons.
“Without divulging details, they said they wanted to interrogate him,” the terrified woman said amid sobs.
She said her son, a Form One student, was shaken by the incident and fled during the raid and his whereabouts are still unknown.
The wife said police took his mobile phone numbers and unsuccessfully tried to reach him but all were switched off.
His daughter Suheima Mohamed said the incident left them shaken.
Mohamed’s in-law, Said Omar, said police mistook him for the politician but left him off the hook after explanations.
The family members said the politician has been involved in relief food distribution during the coronavirus pandemic in parts of Mombasa and Kilifi counties to cushion vulnerable households.
They said when he left the house on Monday morning he said he would be away distributing relief food as he did for the past weeks and that they have not heard from him since.
A human rights activist, Mathias Shipeta, who visited the distraught family to express sympathy condemned the police action as unwarranted.
Shipeta, who is a Haki Africa rapid response officer, said they will lodge a complaint and asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigation to help in track the politician.
“In fact, we want to lodge a formal complaint as a human rights body and demand an explanation from the police on his whereabouts,” said Shipeta.
