Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

The last week cold murder of an ex-senior Kenya Police officer has rekindled rumors and speculation that his slaying could be connected to the incriminating evidence he had given to the Waki Commission.

Benard Kimeli Kemei a retired former senior deputy commissioner of police was discovered dead inside h living room of his house in a Nairobi suburb with numerous bodily stabs would and a gun shot.

The killing, according to police looked highly professional and appeared to have been done by people whom he knew as there is said to be no sign of forceful entry into his house, which is located in an area which is highly secured as far as the security of home are concerned.

On Saturday, one of the dailies the NAIROBISTAR come out bold with an article speculating that the death of the former top police officer may have been killed because the testimony he gave to the Waki Commission probing the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

The paper cited its sources from the police as well as other sources associated with the Waki Commission, which it says had confirmed that the deceased Kemei had had appeared before the Waki Commission and some of the evidence he presented to the commission in camera, formed part of the evidence that the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo intend t use in the prosecution of the six suspects he had identified as being responsible for the post election violence.

In the same week the Kenya police in Nairobi discovered the bullet riddled bodies of three well-dressed and well nourished young men in the bush on the main Nairobi-Kajiado road. The men appeared to have been shot from the back had their faces flashed with acid liquid to conceal their identity. They carried no identification papers in their bodies, and speculation is high within the Kenyan capital with rumor that these people could as well be the potential witnesses in the Ocampo Six impending trial at the Hague.

The ICC court at The Hague will on September 1st,2011 decide whether Kenya’s Deputy Primne Minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP who is also the suspended Higher Education Ministr William Ruto, The Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Ambassador Francis Muthaura, the suspended Minister for Industrialization and MP for Tinderet Henry Kosgey, the former Commissioner of Police and a vernacular FM radio presenter Joshua Sang should stand trial for crime against humanity.

Kemei according to the paper report had appeared before the commission in camera in his private capacity.”He was at the time the Commandant of the Police College, which is located at Kiganjo. “ he gave us very useful information that helped us in deciding, the final list of people who should be hold greatly responsible for the post election violence of 2008.” The paper quoted a source at the Waki Commission.

“So ital was his information that we had to make a special arrangements for him to come and see us,” the paper further quoted unnamed former Commissioner who had served in the now disbanded Waki Commission. Kemei is also reported to have been a close friend of the former Deputy Commandant of the Administration Police Oku Kaunya who was forced to flee the country and went into exile in undisclosed location abroad following threats to his life and who is also reported to be a possible prosecution witness during the ICC trials at the Hague.

During the 2008 post election violence, Kemei was the Commandant of the Police College, Kiganjo where it is alleged that secret security meetings were held on how to respond to the violence.

Most startling detailed account have emerged that Kemei, was murdered by unknown people last Tuesday night at his house in Muguga Green posh estate in Westland’s. His killers entered his house, stabbed him several times and sneaked out of the well secured estate where some of the Kenya’s top civil servants live. Kemei’s gun was found lying on his side. Neighbors said they did not hear any commotion coming from the house.

The NAIROBISTAR further revealed that the deceased next door neighbor is the deputy commissioner of police Francis Okonya.”it is mystery how strangers could have gained into Kemei’s compound without the knowledge to the armed police sentries guarding Mr Okonya’s house which is in the next door, “ said a senior CID officer at the scene of the crime.

The slained former police officer’s widow is a senior police officer working in the neighboring Machakos County. The deceased was sharing their Westland’s suburb home with their seventeen year old son who was sleeping at the adjacent servant quarters house.

Piecing stories together, the police source was quoted as saying Kemei’s killer may have been people known to him as there were no signs of struggle of forced entry into the house.

The sae source the house was not ransacked, but the police believe that the killers took away some documents which are linked to the testimony he had presented to the Waki Commission.

They also say that a supply contract he had been awarded by the government department which was the subject of a dispute were also confiscated and take away.

The police sources also hinted that Kemei had kept classified information, which he did not surrender when he decided to take an early retirement in March 2008. This was during the peak of the post-election violence which had gripped Kenya following the disputed results of presidential election. The violence claimed the lives of close to 1300 people and rendered close to 550,000 homeless. Some of these people are still living in the camps occupied by the Internally Displaced persons {IDPs} Kemei is believe to have collected the information from his own trusted junior

police officers working in the field in the period leading to, during elections and after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner. The information in his possession is believed to include the selective manner used by some partisan police commands to deal with election violence in the Rift Valley Province. It is reported that the late Kemei had been ordered by some senior people in the government to provide undercover and uniformed police officer from the police college to do some dirty work against some ethnic communities which he refused.” a close relative was quoted as saying.

The same relative, according to information made available, claimed to have known the existence of classified information.

By virtue of his position as the boss of police academy, the deceased could authorize trainees to various ranks and categories under his command to be assigned duties of quelling the riots. However, officially, such trainees were not supposed to be involved in such tasks until they graduate from the college. Other sources were quoted by the NAIROBISTAR as saying that K ordered was issue to Kemei to release the “idle policemen” policemen at the police college to gout and assist in dealing with riots.

The decision about which of the trainees was going to take part in quelling the violence was done in a selective manner because it favored one ethnic group. “There are forces in Kenya who are fearful that that the murdered officer’s evidence could have been dangerous to some of the Ocampo Six.”These people would not have wanted Kemei to testify or provide any document and photographic evidence to the ICC or even a local tribunal if one is established the paper quote another senior police officer who had been working with the Waki Commission.

Kimeli Kemei’s murder raised the concern about the safety of the five Ocampo Six witnesses who have yet to be taken out of the country. Incident has reinforced the sentiments expressed eelier on by Morene Ocampo about the safety of his witnesses.

The five, the paper says considered important but not at risk as they were below the radar of some of the suspects and their associates, have been receiving death threats as well as being offered millions of shillings not to testify and retract their testimony to the Waki Commission. Some have gone as far as making an abortive attempt to expunge their testimony. Among those fearing for their lives are said to be policemen, who human rights activists say were involved in operations carried out in different parts of the country. So far there is a total silence on the side of the government following the publication of this damning report by the NAIROBISTAR in its Saturday edition.

Ends