Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has revealed the conditions his son Leslie Muturi endured while in captivity following his abduction at the height of the Gen Z protests in June 2024.
Speaking during a live TV interview on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Muturi disclosed that Leslie had been blindfolded and handcuffed during his entire abduction and was only set free at the behest of President William Ruto.
Leslie was abducted on June 22, 2024, and was only released following a call made by Ruto to the Director General of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Noordin Haji.
“The people who abducted him took him to a certain house. He told his captors: ‘You have my phone, you can check and you will not see me talking to anybody who could be connected with the Gen Z (protests)’. He is not a Gen Z,” Muturi said.
Mark Mwenje
Muturi says he has yet to be told the reason behind the arrest of his son, who was in the company of Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje at the time of his abduction in Lavington.
“I believe his only problem was being friends with Hon Mwenje, but I asked, ‘If you were in the company of Mwenje, why wouldn’t they go for Mwenje? To date, nobody has ever come out to tell me why they abducted him,” Muturi remarked.
The embattled CS equally noted that his son recounted that wherever he was detained must have been closer to a road, since he could hear vehicle tyres running over a rubber strip.
Blindfolded
“He was kept incommunicado, blindfolded, taken to some house from where he could hear vehicles go past what sounded like rubber strips on a road; so, it wasn’t far away according to him (Leslie),” Muturi revealed.
“He was given a mattress to sleep on while still blindfolded and handcuffed and the next day a lady took tea and a slice of bread to him,” he recounted.
After the phone call made by Ruto to Haji who promised to release Leslie, Muturi said that his son was dropped along Muthaiga Road and instructed not to look back at the vehicle carrying his captors.
“When he was released, he was dropped somewhere he believes was along Muthaiga Road, and although he was told not to look back by occupants of the vehicle, he told me that he had mischievously looked and saw that it was a double-cabin,” Muturi narrated.
“He was told to walk back towards the direction of Gertrude’s Hospital; however, he could not see the registration number of the vehicle.”
