The following is based on a communication sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Governments of Rwanda and Kenya on 18 June 2024. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Governments time to reply. Regrettably, they did not reply within this timeframe. If replies are received, they will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
At the time of publication, the fate and whereabouts of Mr. Gasana remain unknown
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the alleged abduction and subsequent enforced disappearance from Nairobi of human rights defender and Rwandan refugee Yusuf Ahmed Gasana, and his alleged extraordinary rendition to Rwanda where he is believed to be currently detained.
Mr. Yusuf Ahmed Gasana is a member of the Rwandese Refugee Initiative United and of the Tushirikiane Africa (TUSA) community-based organisation. He has worked on the rights of refugees in Kenya, empowering them to seek legal recourse in cases where their rights have been violated, and organizing them in requiring the Kenyan Government comply with its obligations under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Cessation of Refugees Status Declaration of 30 June 2013. He has advocated against the involuntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees who fled before 31 December 1998.
ALLEGATIONS
On 30 May 2023, at around 7 p.m., Mr. Gasana was allegedly taken from his home in a gated community in Nairobi by unknown persons who entered the estate under the pretext of looking for a rental house. They did not steal or destroy any items in his house and Mr. Gasana was prevented from taking his mobile phone when they took him. It is believed that the alleged perpetrators were Kenyan State agents, acting ultra vires. It is further alleged that they acted in collusion with Rwandan agents.
Mr. Gasana’s abduction was reported by his family to Kenyan police, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI), the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPAO), the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the UNHCR Branch Office for Kenya. The police did not respond, and the case was handed over to the DCI; the IPAO said that the person handling Mr. Gasana’s case was on leave; the KNCHR did not follow up on the case. UNHCR Kenya referred the family to the Kenyan Department of Refugee Services (KDRS) and the Kenyan national police. The family wrote to both agencies, but no replies were received.
In late July 2023, the Rwanda Investigative Bureau made inquiries in his hometown in Rwanda, asking whether he had participated in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
On 7 September 2023, the regional DCI said that their investigation into Mr. Gasana’s abduction concluded that it did not appear to be financially motivated.
Between September 2023 and March 2024, a number of individuals contacted Mr. Gasana’s wife and informed her that they had been held with him in an unofficial, clandestine detention facility in Rwanda. They said he was alive and was being held without official charges. They claimed that the facility was used to detain individuals while the authorities sought information to press charges against them.
Mr. Gasana might have been treated with suspicion due to his claims that Rwanda was not a safe country for the repatriation of refugees, in reference to the declaration by UNHCR of 30 June 2013 on the cessation of refugee status of Rwandan refugees. As an advocate against involuntary repatriation, Mr. Gasana had refused to join Kenyan State-sanctioned associations of Rwandan nationals and refugees living in Kenya that promoted the safe return to Rwanda.
At the time of the present communication, the fate and whereabouts of Mr. Gasana remain unknown.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our serious concern at the alleged abduction of Mr. Gasana from his home in Kenya, his extraordinary rendition to Rwanda, his enforced disappearance, and his alleged detention without charge in an unknown facility.
