KENYA: KIMAIYO’S ARREST THREATS TO JOURNALISTS IS AN ACT OF DEFEAT

from: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013

Chris from Nairobi writes: “Fr. I think Pope Francis has taken the right direction as far as the reception of Holy Communion is concerned by opting to allow the divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

My wonder is that there are some priests who stop their faithful from receiving Holy Communion on merely their personal differences. Is such an act justifiable according to the church’s law?”

Juliet from Nairobi would also like to know why the Inspector General of the police David Kimaiyo wants to arrest KTN Jicho Pevu presenter Mohamed Ali and Inside Story John-Allan Namu of incitement and propaganda when they were just reporting how Kenya Army looted Westgate Mall instead of protecting the people and their property.

Chris there were no way the conservative cardinals working with the pope could allow this happen. On October 22, 2013 Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, strongly reaffirmed Catholic Church teaching forbidding divorced and remarried Catholics from receiving Holy Communion.

In a length essay published on the Vatican newspaper’s website in five languages, Archbishop Gerhard Muller was categorical that Pope Francis has no intention at all to change this dogma.

This is despite the comments from Pope Francis on his return trip from Rio’s World Youth Day regarding divorced and remarried Catholics that a change in the Church’s long-standing tradition on the matter was coming. That perception was strengthened with the announcement of an upcoming synod on families for next October.

Juliet this is not the first time Mohamed Ali and John -Allan Namu have been threatened. They have received death threats over George Saitoti death exposé that aired on the station some weeks ago.

The Standard Group management expressed concern over the threats that appeared aimed at intimidating its journalists. Group Chief Executive Sam Shollei said the Group supports Press freedom and will not allow its journalists to be intimidated in the course of their duties.

The exclusive stories dubbed Ghururi ya Saitoti and Death in Ten Minutes by Ali and Namu respectively showed that there could have been foul play in the death of then Internal Security minister George Saitoti.

Mr Shollei said Standard Group will stand by its journalists, and will remain steadfast in discharging its duties as a media house, without fear or favour.

The two journalists looked into the circumstances that led to the death of Prof. Saitoti, his assistant Orwa Ojode, their bodyguards and two pilots. The pair tried to prove that Saitoti’s ‘accident’ was an indeed an assassination.

Mohammed Ali was to be killed along Waiyaki Way, near the Museum Hill Interchange.
Dennis Onsarigo, his colleague was to be terminated as he headed home. To support his claims, Moha played a clip of the then Makadara MP Mike Sonko addressing residents of Likoni in May last year. Sonko said that he was aware of a plot to kill Mohammed Ali, Maina Njenga and himself.

In the flight recording aired on Jicho Pevu, the pilots were heard coughing repeatedly just before silence and crashing. They did not even press the distress button.

In the investigative piece, it emerged that the pilots that were to fly Saitoti initially, were replaced with other quite inexperience ones. Nancy Gituanja and Luke Oyugi were informed of their morning assignment that past night while at a club near the airport.

When the plane crashed, Mohammed Ali wondered why the police failed to seal off the scene to prevent loss of evidence. He also wonders why the plane wreckage was let to remain at the scene for 14 full days. A few moths later, Saitoti’s phone was recovered with an Administration Police officer.

Soon after, the commission investigating the accident, led by Judge Kalpana Rawal, was informed how NSIS made phone calls, to prevent the inclusion of particular evidence.
In the postmortem, there was decolourisation of the body, and a particular jelly-pink colour was observed in some organs.

These two factors are brought about by poisonous gas cyanide, and these two facts were not included in the final report. This was admitted by Dr. Amripal karsi. It proves that NIS Director Gichangi was aware of the plan.

Similarly, Ali and his colleague Dennis Onsarigo were threatened after running Paruwanja ya Mihadarati or Untouchables in 2011. Former Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere threatened he would sue the journalists after they exposed how a senior General Service Unit officer, Erastus Kirui Chemorei was killed.

The journalists wanted to prove to Kenyans that what the police had reported earlier concerning the death that it was robberies was not the case. In fact Chemorei had been killed by his fellow police in connection with the Sh6.4-billion cocaine seized by police in a private villa in Malindi where it was kept.

At the time of his killing, Chemorei was keeping custody of the store where the cocaine was kept. Jicho pevu exposed how together with 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.

According to sources, Chemorei who was an adjutant at the GSU Training School, Ruaraka, was picked because he was seen as honest, secretive, and trustworthy. These attributes would lead to his brutal murder at the hands of those who had theirs firmly fixed on the haul.

Jicho Pevu revealed that on February 19, 70 police officers led by then area DCIO, Julius Sunkuli, OCPD Augustine Kimantheria, and DC Christopher Musumbu surrounded his house. Many officers disembarking and taking positions around the barbed wired fence as others entered the compound planning how to finish him.

Daniel Maiyo, who was stationed at Kapsowar police post and who was among the officers in the said special operation, says in a statement that after arriving at Chemorei’s home, they found the OCPD and two other people they did not know.

He said the DCIO, Julius Sunkuli, told them to remain outside as he entered the compound, he shortly returned, and ordered them to search the house.

The officer says they found two bullets, handed them over to Sunkuli, and continued searching. But as they went on with the search they heard gunshots. When they came out they saw Chemorei lying dead about 30m from his house.

Besides the body, as they would verify later, were three AK 47 guns, three magazines, and 62 rounds of ammunition.

Another officer, Kimantheria, in his statement, says he was told there were gangsters who had escaped from Chemorei’s house, and he decided to follow them. But when he could not find them he headed towards the suspect’s home.

He said a few metres from Chemorei’s gate he heard gunshots, which lasted for about three minutes. When the gunshots stopped, he saw Chemorei’s body on the ground. He was told he had attempted to flee after being found with guns.

He said the guns found were AK47s serial numbers: 56-128132564, 1960 xa5207, and 386056367017 and 62 rounds of ammunition and a bayonet.

Sunkuli says in his statement that after the guns were found in Chemorei’s compound, Chemorei tried to flee and when cornered he attempted to grab a gun from a police officer hence he was shot.

But the statements of officers who were in the operation contradict Kimantheria and Sunkuli’s statements. Bernard Cheruiyot, a police officer, states that Chemorei co-operated with the police and did not attempt to run as indicated in the OCPD and DCIO’s reports.

“I heard the voice of the DCIO who was outside the gate say, “Simama!” Immediately officers opened fire. I never saw him jump over the fence.”

Another officer corroborates Cheruiyot’s statement. Jackson Cheruiyot says when they arrived at Chemorei’s house they found the OCPD in company of two other people inside the compound.

This was about the time when John-Allan Namu was still reporting for NTV and Harith Salim uncovered evidence of recruitment activities in Kenya by Somalia’s radical al Shabaab group.

Undercover video footage taken by the crew shows the activities of a network of terror recruiters luring youths to go and fight in Somalia. Disturbingly, one of the key recruiters captured on tape introduced himself as a serving member of the Kenyan military.

This is none other than Corporal Hussein Abdullahi Athan. He holds the rank of corporal, and has been in the Kenyan military for more than 10 years. Hussein is also a trained engineer – a skill set which, in the army, means that, among other things, he is a specialist in laying land mines and booby traps as well as in bridge-building.

His base is 10 Engineers in Nanyuki, but at that time he was attached to the school of combat engineering in Isiolo as a trainer.

In fact Juliet Kimaiyo should be very grateful to the media because they are able to discover security threats in the country which Kimaiyo with his security team are not able to do. But assure Kimaiyo’s threats are just like a sound of a frog which cannot scare a cow from drinking water. Kimaiyo and his team must accept they have failed in their duties.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.comFacebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *