Seven Turkish citizens were Friday abducted by unknown people in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
Three of them were however later released by the said abductors.
The incident happened in the Kileleshwa area while the foreigners were driving to their office in the morning hours.
They are teachers in Nairobi.
Speculations are that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is behind the abduction due to their links to the Gülen movement.
Government officials said they investigating the saga.
Their friends said the abduction happened early hours of Friday.
Mustafa Genç, his son Abdullah Genç, Hüseyin Yeşilsu, Necdet Seyitoğlu, Öztürk Uzun, Alparslan Taşçı and his wife Saadet Taşçı were the individuals that were kidnapped.
Abdullah Genç, Necdet Seyitoğlu and Saadet Taşçı were later released by the kidnappers.
The other four are missing.
Necdet Seyitoglu who is an education consultant in Nairobi said after being abducted, they were taken around for at least eight hours.
“It happened in the morning around 7:30 am, a white vehicle blocked our way and four men armed with guns jumped into our car,” Seyitoglu said.
“They covered our faces and took us around for eight hours, they took away my mobile phone and a laptop.”
He said the car that blocked them was a white Jeep while they were in an office van.
Their vehicle was intercepted by men in balaclavas and were bundled into vehicles to unknown destination.
Seyitoglu said the abductors refused to identify themselves if they were police officers even though they were dressed as civilians but only asked them what they were doing in the country.
“After the ordeal, I was dumped in an unknown location and one of the gunmen gave me Sh1,000 and ordered me to board a matatu as they proceeded with my colleagues,” Seyitoglu added.
He said it took him about an hour to trace back to their office in Kileleshwa where he arrived around 4:30pm to start tracing his counterparts who were still missing at the time.
The matter was reported at Kileleshwa police station. It is not the first time such an incident happens in the city.
The abductees were asylum-seekers registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who were protected from forcible return to Turkey, where they claimed they face threats to their life and freedom due to their links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
The incident led to fears that they were kidnapped by Turkey’s intelligence agency MİT, which has been responsible for employing extralegal methods, including renditions, to secure the return of Gülen movement supporters after official extradition requests were denied.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğa designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members.
He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding.
Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the coup attempt MİT has conducted operations for the forcible return of more than 100 people with alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Latest cases include Koray Vural, a Turkish businessman who went missing in Tajikistan in September 2023 and was found to be in police custody in Turkey the next month. Emsal Koç, who also went missing Tajikistan in June 2023, was found to be in police custody in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum when the police contacted his family living in the province.
According to a 2023 report by Freedom House on transnational repression, Turkey has become the world’s second most prolific perpetrator of transnational repression.
The wide range of tactics used by the Turkish government against its critics abroad include spying through diplomatic missions and pro-government diaspora organizations, denial of consular services and outright intimidation and illegal renditions.
