Not Abducted! Tuju Resurfaces After Disappearance, Speaks of Harrowing Experience That Forced Him Into Hiding

Former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju resurfaced Monday afternoon, ending nearly two days of mounting national anxiety over his whereabouts and putting to rest fears, voiced even by senior politicians, that he had been abducted.

Appearing live on Citizen TV at lunchtime, Tuju disclosed that he had spent the intervening period in hiding after he noticed a vehicle with no number plates pursuing him through the streets of Karen on Saturday evening.

Tuju said he had been driving when he became aware of the tail. Using his familiarity with the Karen road network, he executed a sharp turn into Nandi Road, shook off his pursuers and then abandoned his vehicle before going to ground.

“Fortunately, I know Karen well. I branched into Nandi Road. That is how I lost them,” he said at a press conference flanked by opposition leaders including Wiper Democratic Movement leader Kalonzo Musyoka, DAP-K leader Eugene Wamalwa and former National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi.

His driver Steve Mwanga, who had also been reported missing and was present at the briefing, said he was too shaken to recount in detail what had transpired. “Mheshimiwa was the one driving. I am traumatised. I do not want to describe what happened. It is a very bad state we are in,” Mwanga said.

Tuju thanked a family in Kiambu County for sheltering him through the ordeal, though he declined to name them. He explained why he had chosen not to seek police protection, invoking the recent deaths and ordeals of other public figures.

“I consider myself blessed. I know Cyrus Jirongo died. I know Albert Ojwang was killed. Gaitho was abducted at Karen Police Station where he sought safety,” he said, his remarks drawing an uncomfortable parallel between the institution tasked with his protection and the very source of the danger he feared.

Surveillance Report Filed Days Before Disappearance

The sequence of events that led to Tuju’s two-night disappearance stretched back to the Friday before he vanished. On Saturday, March 21, he walked into Karen Police Station and filed a report, recorded as OB 21/21/03/2026, stating that he had the previous day been trailed by a white Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series with no number plates. He told officers he felt he was under surveillance.

That same Saturday evening, the former CS was due on air at Ramogi FM for a scheduled interview at 7pm. He never arrived. His phone went dark. His son Mano Tuju received a call from the Officer Commanding Station at Karen Police Station the following Sunday morning, while at church, informing him that his father’s vehicle had been found abandoned on Miotoni Lane, hazard lights still blinking, keys nowhere in sight. A missing person report was subsequently filed as OB 17/22/03/2026.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations deployed a specialised team and began forensic processing of the abandoned vehicle.

However, investigators said they were denied entry to Tuju’s Mwitu Drive residence by family members and called for full cooperation. Tuju’s lawyer Paul Nyamondi confirmed the missing persons report had been filed and noted that the non-appearance at a scheduled radio interview was out of character for his client.

The news of Tuju’s disappearance triggered a cascade of alarm across Kenya’s political class and the wider public. Siaya Governor James Orengo told a church congregation in Narok on Sunday that Tuju had been kidnapped. “Nataka niwajulishe, ndugu yetu Tuju ametekwa nyara,” Orengo said, urging Kenyans to pray. University of Nairobi students took to Uhuru Highway, University Way and Lower State House Road, burning tyres and clashing with police in protests that demanded answers.

ODM leaders convened a chorus of concern. Senator Oburu Oginga, speaking at his installation as a Luo elder in Bondo, Siaya, described the incident as deeply unsettling and warned that a slow official response would tarnish Kenya’s reputation internationally. Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo called on police to do everything in their power to locate Tuju. Nyando MP Jared Okelo went further, appealing to Oburu to lobby President William Ruto personally to direct the DCI to act. “The President has the power to bring Mr Tuju back to us alive,” Okelo said.

Suba South MP Caroli Omondi offered a different framing, suggesting the incident may be rooted in commercial conflicts rather than political persecution. “Commercial disputes should not be resolved unlawfully. The people after Tuju’s property are the same people after Miwani and Koguta land in Kisumu,” he said. Former Cabinet Secretary and presidential hopeful Eliud Owalo invoked the constitutional duty of the state, urging the National Police Service to act with urgency and keep the family informed.

Property Battle That Preceded the Disappearance

Tuju’s disappearance did not occur in a vacuum. It came at the tail end of an escalating confrontation over his Karen real estate portfolio, including Entim Sidai Wellness Sanctuary, Tamarind Karen and Dari Business Park, all tied to a debt dispute with the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB, formerly EADB) estimated at more than $15 million. On March 13, Tuju alleged that over 100 armed police officers, some in balaclavas and driving vehicles with covered number plates, raided Dari Business Park in the early hours without a court order and stationed themselves on the premises for days.

On March 18, the Commercial Court declined to grant Tuju temporary orders stopping the auction of the contested properties, with Justice Moses Ado ruling that respondents had to be heard first and scheduling the matter for April 7.

Just three days before his disappearance, Tuju wrote an open letter to Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, seeking protection and citing what he described as sustained pressure linked to his property and personal safety.

With Tuju’s reappearance, attention now shifts from his whereabouts to the identity and intent of those who trailed him through Karen’s leafy streets on a Saturday evening.

The DCI’s forensic examination of the abandoned vehicle is ongoing, while the former Cabinet Secretary’s legal battles over some of Nairobi’s most valuable real estate remain unresolved.