from Judy Miriga
Kenya: Mwau Pulls Kibaki Into Drugs Case
by Susan Muhindi
10 January 2012
FORMER Ethics and governance PS John Githongo has been ordered not to organise public demonstrations against President Kibaki, his family and Kilome MP Harun Mwau over allegations of drug trafficking.
High Court Judge Pauline Nyamweya yesterday directed that the defendants who had not filed in their response do so before February 14 when the case will be heard.
In June 2011 Mwau was formally named as a global drugs kingpin by American President Barrack Obama. The former assistant minister of Transport then resigned his Cabinet post but has since been fighting to clear his name. The case was heard ex-parte because Githongo and his fellow defendants claimed that they had not been served with a summons. They said they only discovered that the hearing was yesterday morning when a lawyer’s letter was pushed under the office door of Ndungu Wainaina of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict.
Mwau’s suit was apparently prompted by a meeting at the British High Commission on November 28, 2011. Githongo allegedly briefed about 30 activists on the need to hold demonstrations against the drugs trade in Kenya and the role of a drugs kingpin who he identified as Harun Mwau.
Yesterday a colleague of Githongo’s said he never attended any meeting at the British High Commission on November 28 and that he did not receive any funding from the UK government. The friend described the alleged plot as a “complete cook-up”. In December Mwau filed an application, that was certified as urgent by Justice George Odunga, stating that Githongo was planning demonstrations across Kenya to tarnish his name and destroy his businesses.
Mwau’s suit claimed that US$1 million (Sh90 million) would be used to orchestrate the the campaign. Yesterday Justice Nyamweya allowed four points in Mwau’s injunction against Githongo and ten other defendants, including, curiously, the Attorney General. Government is presumably also now barred from commenting on Mwau’s activities.
Firstly the court accepted that the ten defendants and their “servants/agents…. be restrained from engineering public demonstrations and chaos and/or in any way interfering with or disrupting or dismantling or by use of placard messages targeting the First Family, the plaintiff and/or any of his businesses”. The inclusion of President Kibaki and his family in Mwau’s injunction caused surprise as they have not previously been accused of involvement in the drugs trade. They were also not party to Mwau’s suit so it is not clear why the High Court granted the injunction protecting the Kibaki family.
Secondly the defendants were blocked from organising demonstrations to provoke the police.
Thirdly the defendants were ordered to hand over any documents about “narcotics drug trafficking” and the “culprits” to Mwau, the Attorney General and the court.
Fourthly, the defendants were ordered to “be restrained” from “making any allegation on drug trafficking about the Plaintiff whether directly or indirectly”. The ban appears to include “associates, co-conspirators, servants and/or agents” so it could be interpreted as blocking the media generally from writing about Mwau and the drugs trade. In another curious twist, two of the defendants filed replying affidavits denying their part in the ‘plot’
Former Mungiki leader Ndura Waruinge yesterday asked for his name struck out as he is a law abiding citizen and is not privy to any information linking Mwau to drug trafficking.
He says he attended the November meeting at the British High Commission believing it was to raise awareness about drugs but then realised it was to hatch a plan for President Obama to take action against Mwau as a drug trafficker. “I am a victim of circumstances as I was mislead to believe that I would play a useful role in drug awareness campaign by Githongo in attending the meeting only to learn that it was a strategy meeting against Mwau,” he states.
Micheal Kiragu, also a defendant, yesterday applied to have his name struck out of the suit saying that he never intended to campaign against Mwau. He said he went to the meeting believing that it was about drug awareness but Githongo then addressed them saying the police had failed to deal with the drugs problem so it was necessary to demonstrate against Mwau who was “the drugs kingpin”.
The defendants in Mwau’s suit are Githongo, Ndungu Wainaina, Twaweza Ni Sisi, Tom Mboya, Ndura Waruingi, Micheal Kiragu, Kenneth Mungai, Fred Bunde, Edwin Muturi, and the Attorney General. After Obama identified Mwau as a drugs kingpin, Mwau claimed his life was in danger. Mwau’s car was mysteriously shot at in Nairobi a week later but Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere dismissed the shooting as a fabrication. In November, assistant Internal Security minister Orwa Ojode told Parliament there was no evidence to link Mwau or Juja MP William Kabogo to drug trafficking.