The father of three minors allegedly abducted six months ago by persons known to him who were ordered to be prosecuted by the DPP Noordin Haji has asked President William Ruto and Chief Justice Martha Koome to intervene in the matter.
Nikesh Harji in the company of religious leaders expressed that he was taken aback when yesterday the DPP failed to give feedback on the status of the prosecution of the person who allegedly took away the children from him and refused to release them to him.
Harji is appealing to President Ruto and Justice Koome to intervene and have his three children, a girl aged 5 and twins (boys) aged nine months old who were given to a Mombasa businessman after his wife died in April this year returned to him.
“I am capable of taking care of my children. I work, I brought them forth. I am their father. Dear President Ruto, please don’t let my children be in the hands of child traffickers. Help me get them back,” he said.
While asking the head of state to intervene, Harjir further expressed that he was disappointed by the court system for failing to deliver justice.
“It’s terrible, it's now six months since l have seen my children, no one had expected this. If I don't get my children back l will camp day and night at the Supreme Court,” he stated while addressing the media outside Milimani law courts.
“I really need justice to prevail over the custody of my children as there is hardly anything left of it…We are stuck for an answer. I have no idea what will happen next, we need help," he added.
What happened
Harji says that he and his late wife Vanita Nekish Senghani were married in or about 2017 and had been living as husband and wife until her death on April 3, 2022.
The three children were ‘forcibly taken’ by two suspects; Lali and his wife Hirani, after their father, Harjir, was taken into custody for almost a month over the death of his wife, Vanita Nikesh who was found hanging in her bedroom in April 2022.
After he (Harji) was cleared of charges, Lali and his wife took away the children and filed an application before Tononoka law court seeking custodial orders for the minors.
Mombasa Principal Magistrate Viola Yator granted them custody even though the father claimed they were not related in any way.
Harji told the court that he was the only surviving parent of the children and the strangers forcibly took up their custody without his consent.
Further, he claimed that the magistrate from Tononoka Law courts who gave the court order to have his children handed over to the community acted inappropriately.
In the petition to the CJ, Harjir laments that justice has been delayed in releasing the children to him from persons who took them away.
“Children Officers at Kibera and Nyali recommended that I remain with the children to bring them up since I am their father,” Harji says.
He also noted that despite the DPP ordering the protection of the seven suspects nothing has been done.
“My children were taken away by a person known to me as I was watching,” Harjir stated.
Harji's predicaments
Immediately after the death of his wife, Harji was arrested and detained by police as to circumstances revolving around her demise. He was later freed and not charged with any offence in his wife’s mysterious death.
The DPP in July 2022, directed police to arrest and prosecute seven suspects over the alleged abduction of three minors whose mother died by committing suicide in the family home.
Those identified by Haji for prosecution are Urvash Kauship, Lalji Hirani, Ratan Daya, Dakish Nilesh Siyani, Mitikisha Vekariyi, Arvid Vekarja, and Namrata Manoyi Keshavi Makwana.
The DPP directed the seven be charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and abduction. Through Senior Prosecuting Counsel J.R. Meroka, the DPP said there is tangible evidence to support the case.
The seven suspects are alleged to have abducted the minors – a girl aged five years and nine-month-old twins – in July 2022.
In the correspondence sanctioning the prosecution of the seven dated October 13, 2022, the DPP said: “The actions of July 5, 2022, were criminal, hence the following – Urvash Kauship, Lalji Hirani, Ratan Daya, Dakish Nilesh Siyani, Mitikisha Vekariyi, Arvid Vekarja, and Namrata Manoyi Keshavi Makwana committed criminal offences (1) conspiracy to commit a felony, (2) abduction,”
Meroka said the repealed Children Act 2001 (in force on the date of the commission of the offences of abduction and conspiracy to commit a felony) under Section 27 (1)(a) provides, “on the death of a mother the father shall exercise parental responsibility.”
