From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011
Being a Police Spokesman in Kenya today is one of the most difficult responsibilities. Eric Kiraithe spoke on behalf of Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere to react to a report by KTN and The East African Standard that detailed how Sh6.4 billion-cocaine haul was seized, stored, investigated and disposed in 2004, the drama that revealed how General Service Unit (GSU) senior officer Erastus Chemorei was brutally killed by security officers.
Kiraithe was there to convince Kenyans that Iteere was innocent and at no time did Chemorei get access to the key to a room where the cocaine was kept and even if he did, he could not have gone with the keys to his home while on leave. This sentiment leaves a lot to be desired.
The big question that remains unanswered is that if Iteere has been falsely accused, who then planned for the killing of Chemorei and why? Will the opinion of the Attorney General on what action he intends to take against anyone who has made false accusations about the drugs help solve the brutal death?
The Police Commissioner intends to sue the Standard and KTN if Attorney General advises so. He wants to sue them not only because he claims he is innocent, but because the publicity on this haul has caused a huge damage on him. What about the trauma children and the widow Chemorei left behind are undergoing? Which is more damaging?
And if it is not true that as Iteere claims there was no way Chemorei would have gone with the key at home, to whom did he leave with the key with, and why was he given un usual leaves against his wish from time to time- which according to documents, he was told to proceed on leave in December 10, 2004, February 1, 2005, February 8, and February 17, a move which according to his family members and other people close to him at his Kitalale home made Chemorei to be disturbed man.
One fact remains for sure, that Chemorei was keeping custody of the key to the store where the Sh6.4-billion cocaine haul that was seized by police in a private villa in Malindi was kept. This fact according to the report was known in top security circles, including Iteere himself.
Thanks to Standard and KTN that shed the light that as Kenyans were made to believe Erastus Kirui Chemorei was killed because he was in the police most wanted list of the criminals and that he had been the architect of robberies and killings in Kitale can no longer be convincing.
What was not very clear and the Police Commissioner did not answer is why the death of Chemorei came just at the time when by then GSU commandant Lawrence Mwadime and Assistant commandant and current Police Commissioner, Mathew Iteere, were mandated to keep safe custody of the cocaine – the biggest ever netted locally in history of Kenya.
If Chemorei was among the most listed police criminals and that is why he was inhumanly killed, how come that he was not only entrusted with the key of such huge asset money wise but also an adjutant at the GSU Training School, Ruaraka. Simple logic is that he was picked because he was seen as honest, secretive, and trustworthy.
But even so, if Chemorei was a criminal as earlier alleged, why had the whole battalion of 70 police officers led by then area DCIO, Julius Sunkuli, OCPD Augustine Kimantheria, and DC Christopher Musumbu surround his house on February 19, and instead of arresting him he was to be killed like a dog as his son Elijah traumatically wondered.
Why again did they force Abubakar Latama who says he had just concluded a deal to buy a cow from Chemorei when they heard vehicles roaring near the gate of the deceased to drink his brain? According to Latama they had just finished taking tea and after h handed him Sh8,500 for the cow h had bought from him (he needed the money as his son had been sent home from school because he had not cleared his fees), he led him outside to where the cow was, when the police vehicles pulled up outside his gate.
This is not the first time police is killed in connection with drugs. The lead police officer investigating drug trafficking through the Port of Mombasa died mysteriously. Kenya Ports Authority District Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO) Hassan Abdillahi was murdered on December 31, 2004.
Abdillahi was perceived by a number of Embassy personnel as being deeply committed to tackling fraud and drug trafficking at the Port of Mombasa. Although a number of suspects have been arrested for questioning about Abdillahi’s death, among them Juja MP William Kabogo, who is also owner of a port container transshipment company, how come no conviction has been made?
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti named former assistant minister and Kilome MP Harun Mwau, Kisauni MP Hassan Joho, Makadara MP Gidion Mbuvi, Juja MP William Kabogo and prominent businessman Ali Punjani as those under investigation for alleged drug trafficking.
The sad story however, is that when such containers are seized by police or customs officials, the traffickers allegedly pay millions of shillings in bribes to have them released or silence the officials. One such incident is cited as having occurred in October 2008. The dossier says that one of the two containers of used clothes was held, but the importer paid a Sh1 million bribe to have the customs officer who had taken action replaced.
In July 2008, one of the suspected drug kingpins allegedly received “unspecified narcotics from Pakistan, Dubai and Tanzania which he stored in Gikomba, Mathare and Githurai.” The dossier alleges that the crew of his public transport vehicle fleet was used to distribute the drugs in Nairobi’s Buruburu estate and the CBD. The same suspect is said to have previously used a location near the Eastleigh Air Force base in Nairobi as a processing and packaging facility.
Heroin, the dossier claims, was brought into the base by couriers where it was packaged and shipped out in military vehicles to other distribution sites. Although Sources close to the Internal Security ministry say the United States wants Kenya to start the prosecution of drugs barons right away, this cannot be possible in Kenya as yet since the deal involve people who matter in this country called Kenya.
The largest ever haul of cocaine weighing 1.5 tonnes and worth Sh6.4 billion arrived at Kilindini, Mombasa, from Venezuela in December 2004. The documents on the drug network in Kenya show that those involved have been shipping in drugs hidden in containers said to carry used clothes or shoes.
For instance, they indicate that one of the key members of the drug syndicate shipped in cocaine from Latin America in December 2007 disguised as used computers. Another member of the cartel brought in heroin and cannabis from Pakistan, Dubai and Tanzania in July 2008.The dossier also says the suspected drug lords distribute the narcotics to several city estates.
When the Jicho Pevu and Inside Story expose titled ‘Paruwanja la Mihadarati’ and ‘The Untouchables’, it gave in inspiration that any officer who push for further investigation and arrest is at risk. That is why officers linked to drug cartels may have conspired to eliminate Erastus Chemorei after he allegedly refused to hand over keys to a store at the GSU headquarters where the Sh6.4 billion cocaine haul had been stored.
These were similar tactics used by Moi. He used it to say his government did not involved in Dr Robert Ouko’s assassination, even though according to Scotland Yard’s Superintendent John Troon who led a team of detectives to unravel the murder of Ouko revealed that Moi’s government was fully responsible.
Initial investigations zeroed in on two key suspects; the late Internal Security PS Hezekiah Oyugi and former Energy minister Nicholas Biwott. Ten government officials, including Biwott, were held in police custody for questioning for two weeks in November 1991 but a Kenyan Police investigation concluded that there was no ‘evidence to support the allegations that Biwott was involved in the disappearance and subsequent death of the late minister Dr. Robert John Ouko’.
Instead a Nairobi court in November 2000 awarded Mr Biwott record damages of Sh30 million arising from a case in which he sued the British forensic expert Dr Ian West and others for linking him to the Ouko murder. Earlier Biwott won Sh10 million from Bookpoint, a popular Nairobi bookshop, for stocking copies of the book Dr Ian West’s Casebook.
Troon traced the circumstances leading to the murder to a Presidential trip to the United States in January 1990, where Moi led a strong delegation of government officials. During the Washington trip, according to Press reports, the American media “launched an ambush” on Moi by accusing him of running a dictatorship rife with human rights abuses.
Ouko, who was then the Foreign Affairs minister, was reportedly cast in positive light. Troon’s investigations centred on the alleged massive corruption at the Kisumu Molasses plant, and efforts to conceal the alleged perpetrators-It is claimed that Ouko had conducted thorough investigations into the malpractice at the plant, which allegedly touched on key Government officials close to Moi and who were opposed to the revitalisation of the plant.
On November 26, 1991, Moi disbanded the Ouko Commission of Inquiry, which was chaired by Justice Evan Gicheru, now Chief Justice. Moi later said the discontinuation of the commission was to enable further investigations to be carried out into the minister’s death and also into alleged obstruction and interference in Troon’s work.
Practically all those who knew about the death of Ouko also died mysteriously. Oyugi died in the United Kingdom where he was being treated.Two weeks later, Mr Obati also died. He was a former Interpol chief in Kenya, he died at the Nairobi Hospital where he had been hospitalised for three weeks. He allegedly developed liver complications.
Some of the people who knew the death and still alive include Mr Jonah Anguka, a former Nakuru District Commissioner who was charged with Ouko’s murder. He is in exile in USA. Anguka, who was a friend of the murdered minister, is alleged to have been spotted in a white saloon vehicle believed to have been central to the murder.
Former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi who rejected calls to appear before the committee investigating the death of Foreign Minister Robert Ouko is also still alive. His lawyer, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, said the attempt by the team of Gor Sunguh’s commission to question the retired head of state was malicious because he (Moi) had nothing to reveal to the committee.
Mr Troon was among the experts Moi invited to examine the death. Report was vigorously disputed by the Moi government when it was ultimately handed in to the authorities.
When the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR), an independent body set up by an act of Parliament, said it had evidence that almost 500 suspects were shot and their bodies dumped during the past five months, the story was the same. A police spokesman dismissed the allegations as nothing more than “rumors,” even though according to then director of the KNHCR, Maina Kiai police were involved.
Maina challenged the police to explain how hundreds of bodies had been delivered by police vehicle to mortuaries, yet the force had denied any involvement in the deaths. Researchers had spent three months collecting the data from mortuaries as relatives came forward claiming that their loved ones had disappeared.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya