In any functioning democratic system, law enforcers are entrusted with the duty of protecting citizens, upholding justice, and ensuring that no individual falls victim to the shadows of impunity.

Yet apparently, a disturbing pattern is becoming deeply rooted: the unwillingness or outright refusal of police to investigate abductions and enforced disappearances.

This negligence is not just a failure of duty. It is a betrayal of public trust, a stain on the rule of law, and, most dangerously, a signal to perpetrators that they may act without consequence.

More disturbing is the public admission by none other than President William Ruto himself and Inspector General of Police Daudi Kanja over people being abducted, maimed, tortured and forced to disappear without a trace.

While both Ruto and Kanja have on several occasions promised to end the creeping culture where perceived government critics are abducted and held incommunicado, only to be released after being tortured and made to swear never to say anything negative about President Ruto’s government, they have never shown any willingness to unearth the identities of the suspected abductors.

Yet they consistently deny that police or any other government security agency is involved in the abductions, raising the question of whether mysterious spirits could be behind the malaise.

The reasons behind police inaction are complex but are rooted in deeply troubling realities.

In many cases, State security agencies themselves have been implicated in enforced disappearances and abductions – whether through direct involvement or tacit approval.

Police, caught in a web of hierarchical control, fear retribution if they pursue leads that point to their colleagues either in the National Intelligence Service or the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

The Kenya Kwanza government, keen on silencing dissent, has been known to use abductions to target activists, journalists, and opposition voices.

When the State becomes both the judge and the executioner, police investigations are either stonewalled or buried quietly.

Both President Ruto and Kanja owe Kenyans an explanation.

Failure to take any action only emboldens perpetrators and signals that such violations are not only tolerated but protected.