Garissa mother pleads for help to trace 17-year-old son feared trapped in Libya trafficking ring
The Form 2 student at Horseed Secondary School went missing on Saturday morning after telling his mother, Makai Owl, that he was attending a wedding in Garissa town.
A family in Garissa is frantically searching for their 17-year-old son, Sadheq Idris Ibrahim, who they fear has fallen victim to a human trafficking ring.
The Form 2 student at Horseed Secondary School went missing on Saturday morning after telling his mother, Makai Owl, that he was attending a wedding in Garissa town.
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He never returned home, and later that day, his phone was switched off.
Makai recounted the unsettling chain of events, saying her son had dressed in a Kanzu, an Islamic garment often worn at weddings and Friday prayers.
"By midday, when he failed to return for lunch, I grew concerned and called him. He assured me he had eaten at the wedding and would be home in two hours. But the two hours passed, and when I tried to reach him again, his phone was turned off," she said.
Travelled to Nairobi
Her fears deepened when she contacted one of Sadheq’s close friends, who revealed a startling truth: her son had travelled to Nairobi, where a man was waiting to take him to Libya with the promise of a lucrative job.
In disbelief, Makai learned that Sadheq may have been lured into a human trafficking network that preys on young people with false promises before subjecting them to torture in Libyan detention centres and extorting huge ransoms for their release.
Investigations also showed that Sadheq’s friend, who had planned to travel with him, was stopped by his family at a Garissa bus station.
"They had become suspicious after they realised him receiving numerous calls from unknown numbers, leading them to prevent him from travelling," she said.
Makai reported the disappearance to Garissa police, who confirmed that Sadheq’s phone was last traced near Nakuru on Sunday evening. They also discovered that he had used another traveller’s phone—a girl’s—to make calls to his friends back home.
Now, Makai is pleading with the public and authorities, especially security officers stationed at the Kenya-Uganda border, to help locate her son and rescue him from the traffickers.
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