British National Recounts 8-Hour Ordeal After Nairobi Kidnapping

British citizen Necdet Seyidoğlu, an education consultant working in Kenya for over two years, has described the terrifying incident after he and several other foreigners were kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya on Friday

In a video shared by the Stockholm Center for Freedom, a Swedish human rights advocacy organization, Seyidoğlu describes the alarming sequence of events. He and a friend were ambushed on their way to work early Friday morning. Four heavily armed men emerged from a vehicle that had blocked their path, forcibly abducting them at gunpoint. The victims were blindfolded and driven for approximately four hours without stopping. Seyidoğlu's ordeal lasted over six hours, during which he and other captives were separated and transferred to different vehicles.

The kidnappers remained silent throughout, refusing to provide any information or identification despite the victims' pleas. Upon his release, Seyidoğlu's laptop was confiscated when the abductors learned of his British nationality, suggesting a potentially targeted operation against individuals with specific political affiliations. The incident has drawn attention to the plight of asylum-seekers connected to a prominent political movement in the region. Human rights advocates suspect the involvement of a foreign intelligence agency, raising concerns about the use of extralegal methods to apprehend individuals deemed enemies of the state.

While three of the kidnapped individuals have been released, four remain unaccounted for, creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty among foreign nationals and asylum-seekers in Kenya. The situation is particularly troubling as many of the abducted individuals, including Turkish nationals, were registered as asylum-seekers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and had been under Kenyan protection for the past two years. Amnesty International has strongly condemned these acts of violence, characterizing them as violations of both Kenyan and international refugee laws.

In an official statement, Amnesty Kenya expresses deep concerns over the growing insecurity faced by refugees and asylum-seekers in the country. The organization emphasizes that the incident constitutes a breach of legal protections afforded to individuals who have sought refuge under the Kenyan government's care.