Post by job on Apr 4, 2008 3:05:32 GMT 3
Do assassinations come as a surprise in Kenya? Were the killings of Hon. Mugabe Were and Hon. David Too isolated cases of crime or a preamble to something bigger? Supposing we wake up to a William Ruto assassination? How safe are these politicians amidst alleged threats on their lives?
Kenya's history of deadly conspiracies between the President and the Minister in charge of the police force, is stunning- This conspiracy has always yielded assassinations, repression, shoot-to-kill orders, and previously, detention without trial.
Digging the archives of Kenya’s political history reveals an interesting pattern in the relationship between the persons holding the offices of the Presidency and the Minister under whose docket, the police force falls. A dark partnership tainted with human blood has existed between the holders of these two offices during most of our history.
It is a pact of secrecy, deadly conspiracy, strong personal bond, business partnership, partnership in grand corruption, and partnership in activities that have often resulted in human tragedies that punctuate Kenya’s darkest moments.
Sample the respective close relationships between: the late President Jomo Kenyatta and former President Daniel Arap Moi; Moi and President Mwai Kibaki; Moi and Nicholas Biwott; Kibaki and Christopher Murungaru; Kibaki and John Michuki: and the latest between Kibaki and Prof. George Saitoti.
Without doubt, there was indeed very close relationship between Kenyatta and Moi. Moi was appointed by Kenyatta as the minister for home affairs in 1964 following a deal to merge KADU, of which Moi was the chairman, with KANU.
He became the Vice-President in 1967, but kept the Home Affairs ministry. The Kenyan police force, (which includes the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU), and the Directorate of Security and Intelligence (DSI)), was under Moi for fourteen years before he became president.
During those fourteen years, detentions and political trials, torture, arbitrary arrests and police brutality reminiscent of colonial days, found root in post-independent Kenya, under Moi’s direct watch. It is also during this time that the highest number of high profile political assassinations were undertaken, creating some of Kenya's dark moments. The very first assassination project was that of;
Pio Gama da Pinto (Jaramogi’s political advisor and ally)
That was the first deadly outcome of the Kenyatta-Moi conspiracy.
Jaramogi next to Mrs Pinto at the Pinto funeral
The assassination industry then picked on with others including Ronald Ngala (majimbo and land rights crusader), Argwings Kodhek (MP and human rights lawyer), and the populist MP from Nyandarua
Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki - fierce critic of Kenyatta's land grabbing tendencies.
See clip of Joseph Kamaru remembering the late Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki
The Kenyatta-Moi conspiracy's greatest felling by bullet however, was that of Kenyatta's then formidable challenge and political threat that made him nervous. Tom Mboya's earlier assassination in 1969 was another product of this deadly state partnership coordinated by forces under Moi, on behalf of Kenyatta.
Tom Mboya and young family
Both purported assassins of Pinto and Mboya, a Kisilu Mutua and Njenga Njoroge respectively, later lamented upon their death sentences, why the “big man” who sent them was not charged.
See clip below of - The late Tom Mboya Funeral where Police did not hesitate at brutalizing civilian mourners:
Assassinations were just a part of the equation. Under Kenyatta's instructions, Vice-President Moi invoked his prerogatives to detain Oginga Odinga and the other eight leaders of the then opposition Kenya People's Union (KPU) in 1969 when that party was banned by Kenyatta.
Others who tasted political detention under the Kenyatta-Moi orders were Martin Shikuku, Jean Marie Seroney, Achieng Oneko and many in the field of academia.
Moi established a network of loyal supporters within the ranks of the intelligence led by the late James Kanyotu to execute many dirty spying operations on his personal (and his boss’) behalf.
In exchange of promotions and hefty rewards, Kanyotu became Moi’s eyes and ears inside and outside of government, even within Kenyatta’s own political circles.
Joint business interests and property acquisitions saw both Kenyatta and Moi grab huge quantities of land and properties across the entire country.
Upon Kenyatta’s death in 1978, a new partnership of President and Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs, was born. Enter the Moi- Kibaki conspiracy.
The duo pursued another vicious police-driven phase of detentions, repression and political assassinations that culminated in authoritarian and tyrannical single-party rule of Kenya.
This time, Kibaki was in-charge of the police including Kanyotu’s intelligence gathering team. When Oginga Odinga and George Anyona sought to register a socialist opposition party in 1982, Moi struck back by making the country a de jure one party state through a motion pushed in parliament by Mwai Kibaki.
It was under the watch of Mwai Kibaki at Home Affairs & Internal Security that the police began the worst forms of civilian harassment of government critics. University student and faculty staff were arbitrarily arrested, tortured, detained without trial, and even jailed under flimsy and outrageous charges. Politicians like Raila Odinga and Koigi Wamwere were not spared from the spree of detentions without trial. Many critics fled the country.
In 1986 alone, on Moi’s orders executed by none other than Kibaki, 100 people were arrested and detained for alleged links to Mwakenya, the movement started by some Kenyans in Diaspora who had fled Moi's oppression.
Survivors of these human rights atrocities of the 80s are right here at Jukwaa, including Onyango Oloo, Adongo Ogony and Miguna Miguna. During the Moi-Kibaki conspiracy, several prominent Kenyans were allegedly assassinated including former Gem MP Ongili Owiti.
Another deadly conspiracy emerged in Moi’s later phase of dictatorship between Moi himself as president, and Nicholas Biwott, who later assumed the role of Internal Security minister. During this period, the new partnership yielded one of the worst human rights violations by police in our history (between 1989 and 1991).
Moi and Biwott, using the police, ruthlessly dealt with multiparty proponents. Raila Odinga, Mohammed Ibrahim, Gitobu Imanyara, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia--among others, were detained under inhuman conditions and without trial. Human rights lawyers, Gibson Kamau Kuria and Kiraitu Murungi, fled to the United States to avoid being jailed.
All these Moi-Biwott activities involving police were eventually punctuated with yet another phase of blood spilling and human sacrifice. The 1990 assassinations of Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Robert Ouko and Anglican cleric Bishop Alexander Muge, and attempts to respectively cover up the murders, brought another dark cloud over Kenya.
Incidentally, Robert Ouko was assassinated for standing in the way of corrupt dealings involving both Moi and Biwott. As MP for Kisumu Rural, Ouko stumbled upon documents detailing corrupt dealings and kickbacks between Biwott (fronting the Moi-Biwott interests ) and the BAK group of companies (given contract to revive the previously stalled Kisumu molasses plant).
The late Dr. Robert Ouko - Kibaki later reneged on an earlier pledge to unearth his assassination
Ouko had discovered the fact that out of the Molasses project contract's total payment, a whooping 50% (multi billion shilling) was actually earmarked as kickback to Moi and Biwott. It was his raising of this matter on a 1990 trip to Washington DC that triggered the plot to end his life. Ouko was promptly assassinated by the President-Internal Security conspiracy.
Besides state murders, the duo of top state functionaries perpetrated huge embezzlement deals that continue to linger over Kenyan taxpayers shoulders to date, including their secretive heist of 5% of Telkom's share at Safaricom. The Goldenberg scandal remains their hallmark work of state theft.
Moi and Biwott, lifelong partnership in corruption and assassination conspiracies. Biwott is banned from UK & the US. All three sons of Moi and Biwott were rejected and humiliated by their electorate at the last polls.
2002 elections paved way for another new conspiracy between President and Minister of Internal Security. This time, President Kibaki and Christopher Murungaru assumed new roles over the police and state machinery.
Not hindered by Kibaki’s campaign pledge to respect human rights, another wave of police brutality, civilian murders by police and political assassinations arrived.
Police clobbered civilian demonstrators senseless, shot and killed defenseless demonstrators including fleeing children who were shot in the back. This also became the era of revival of the assassination industry. Allegedly, the conspiracy oversaw the execution of the murder of a prominent expert on political devolution, the late Dr. Chrispin Mbai. Police cover-up of the assassination was so shoddy that a local newspaper was able to trail the hired assassin in Tanzania.
The sweaty Murungaru, banned from stepping British & American soil was also rejected at the last polls.
Murungaru crushed any attempts to unearth Mbai's assassination, even rewinding Kenya's political clock and reviving the detention without trial era. He promptly ordered the detention of three leading Standard journalists investigating the Mbai murder.
The top two conspirators, Kibaki-Murungaru, made history again when they were caught with their hands in Kenya's coffers, in record setting Shs 200 billion Anglo-Leasing security procurement scandals.
Murungaru has never fully escaped from this scandal, legally speaking. The scandal eventually ended Murungaru's political career and blacklisted him from many Western capitals. Hopefully some day, ex-presidents may also have to answer and account for their actions while in office, as is happening in other more progressive third world countries.
After the November 2005 referendum, a new Internal Security Minister, John Michuki assumed watch over the police force. Never has anyone misused Kenya’s police to orchestrate dirty deals the way Michuki did.
On human rights violations, the Kibaki-Michuki duo proved to be the most lethal combination ever, which brought civilian suffering and bloodshed in extraordinary terms.
John Michuki
This became the era of shoot-to-kill orders by police. The police indeed shot and killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocent civilians. This was also the era when notorious international drug criminals known as the Artur brothers became Assistant Commissioners of Kenya police, - with badges, state protection, state unmarked vehicles, arms and ammunition to boot.
The Artur brothers - it is reported allegedly that Margaryan may be slated to become Kibaki's son in law via the president's daughter Winnie.
They executed illegal state sponsored commando operations (state terrorism) that resulted in horror and vandalism of a local newspaper and broadcasting station’s premises.
The Kibaki-Michuki conspiracy also gave birth to the recent state-orchestrated rigging of the 2007 presidential elections using the Administration Police (AP), who were publicly exposed in local newspaper photos and reports.
Night-time tranportation of cash-stashed Administration Police into election centers prior to election date was clearly documented with compelling evidence of pre-arranged rigging.
This is also the conspiracy that gave birth to the comprehensively reported post-election violence, which had the police playing a central role - of killing hundreds of innocent civilians, some captured in video camera. This duo of Kibaki-Michuki entered history as Kenya’s most blood-thirsty watchers and “mis-users” of police. Fresh orders for police paraphenalia and regalia had to be sought from China to replace stocks rapidly used to spill civilian blood
The latest Kibaki-Saitoti conspiracy has not hesitated to show their determination to maximize their hold on authority over police. They have purportedly rolled out plans to impose a police-state status in rural Rift Valley, where they intend to dramatically increase police presence. This could be a direct hint at forced resettlement of IDPs using police, with little attention being paid to underlying land disputes of historic nature.
The march into yet another dreaded conspiracy. What would it's outcome be? Who could be next? Is William Ruto safe?
This is also the new conspiracy that has mid-wifed renewed ethnicization of the police force.
Under the duo's watch, recent police recruitment and transfers have dramatically taken a tribal inclination, with focus being ethnicity. Majority of new recruits seem to possess politically correct ethnicities, according to publicly available reports in the media. Public complaints have also arisen about ethnically motivated transfers of police officers to regional postings.
These are the fruits of the deadly conspiracies between the President and the Minister in charge of the police, which apparently become worse if the two are ethnically related.
Since indications are rife that the yet to be constituted post-Accord grand coalition cabinet might end up having Saitoti retained as Minister for Internal Security, a report on his role in any police violations of human rights including any murders and assassinations must start rolling out. This conspiracy must be tamed before more innocent blood is shed.
Nimesema.
Job
