Wife Of Kenyan Hostage In Iraq Appeals For His Release

NAIROBI (AP)--The wife of a Kenyan engineer taken hostage in Iraq appealed for his release Friday, adding that she had no new information about her husband's fate or that of a colleague who was also seized.

Foreign Ministry officials in Kenya have identified the two Kenyan telecommunications engineers taken hostage in Iraq Wednesday as Moses Munyao and George Noballa. They were seized after gunmen attacked a convoy of workers from the Iraqna mobile telephone company. Six security guards and three drivers were killed in the attack in western Baghdad.

Florence Munyao asked whoever was holding her husband to release him and allow him to return to Kenya and his daughter.

"My husband has been working in Iraq since May 2005 and said that working conditions were good and did not feel insecure living with Iraqis," she said. "He was just there to do his work."

After meeting with Kenyan officials, she said there was no new information about her husband's fate.

Kenya's embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was working on the case, and the Kenyan ambassador to Egypt was in touch with the men's employer, Orascom Telecommunications, which owns Iraqna, Kenyan officials said. The officials said Thursday that the government had not received any demands from the kidnappers.

"Our daughter cannot understand why her father, who would call and talk to her thrice in a day, is not doing so," Munyao said. "If there is anyone holding him hostage, please let him free."

In 2004, three Kenyan truck drivers were taken hostage in Iraq. They were released, though the negotiations that led to their freedom were never explained in detail.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 21st January 2006