From: Ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
KISUMU CITY
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2012

Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo did not only hand to police the names of senior Government individuals he claims are plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Raila Odinga, he is also convinced that there were such plans and he is ready to face the court of law to defend himself on the allegations.

Thank God that even though those who head the criminal investigation department and police boss are directly appointed by President Kibaki himself, the court is somehow independent and truth may one day come out.

Kenya is not like those days when assassinations were planned, executed and just passed like passing clouds. The story of Erastus Kirui Chemorei exclusively reported by Standard on Sunday, 13th November 2011 can tell it all.

The report has it that when the news of the killing of Erastus Kirui Chemorei hit the headlines six years ago, the country was made to believe he was in the police most wanted list. The police went to great lengths feeding the public with propaganda that he had been the architect of robberies and killings in Kitale. Chemorei was a senior General Service Unit officer and the current police commissioner Mathew Iteere was his boss.

The Standard revealed that what the public was not told is that at the time of his killing, 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 was known in top security circles, some of whom are still top in this current government.

The report had it that in an investigation by KTN, Chemorei came into the limelight when 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.

As soon as Chemorei took up the new duty according to the report he became a hunted man. He found himself being given compulsory leave from time to time. According to documents, the officer was told to proceed on leave in December 10, 2004, February 1, 2005, February 8, and February 17.

His family members and other people close to him at his Kitalale home said Chemorei was a disturbed man, an indication that he was sensing danger since he could not understand why he was given compulsory leaves so frequently. He knew some people were after him but swore not to co-operate with them, so he was eventually killed.

This fear according to the report was confirmed when on February 19, 70 police officers led by then area DCIO, Julius Sunkuli, OCPD Augustine Kimantheria, and DC Christopher Musumbu surrounded his house.

According to witnesses, who The Standard On Sunday tracked down and talked to, the events that followed the arrival of the police at Chemorei’s homestead could easily have been taken from a page torn off the script of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Abubakar Latama is quoted to have said he had just concluded a deal to buy a cow from Chemorei when they heard vehicles roaring near the gate of the deceased. “We had just finished taking tea and after I handed him Sh8,500 for the cow I 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 me outside to where the cow was,” he said.

“We were walking to where the cow had been tethered, some few metres away from the house, when the police vehicles pulled up outside his gate. “We saw many officers disembarking and taking positions around the barbed wired fence as others entered the compound and headed towards us. We turned back and went to meet them,” Abubakar told the Jicho Pevu reporters.

He said as they approached the police officers they were ordered to sit down. No greetings were exchanged. “Chemorei seemed to know them because when the officers told us to get down, he asked them what the problem was. After being informed that they had come to do a search, he told the one who was speaking, “If there is an issue you should have called me to the office, but was told to shut up,” said Abubakar.

Chemorei’s son, Elijah, who was also present, said he saw Land Rovers approaching his home, but he thought they belonged to the GSU. “I was used to vehicles coming to our home when they came to pick my father. I did not think it was anything strange until officers disembarked with their guns and surrounded our house,” he said.

Elijah recalls that the officers went straight to where his father and Abubakar were and told them to sit down. A few minutes later, his father was led away while Abubakar was told to lie down as officers descended on him with kicks and slaps.

“I heard the officer who was in plain clothes ask my father where the key was. When he asked him which key, he hesitated and said ya choo,” he said.

Elijah says there was an argument between his father and the officers who were asking for a key and every time they were given a bunch of keys they said, “Sio hizi!”

He said some more officers were allowed into the compound and went inside the house and shortly came out with his father’s pistol, which was handed over to the man who was interrogating his father.

He recalls that while other officers were still searching the house, the officers guarding his father started debating whether to leave him as they led him towards the fence. “Some were saying let us leave him, while some said let us shoot him. Finally one of them shouted, “Shoot him!” And they started shooting,” says Elijah.

Abubakar says as he lay on the ground, writhing with pain after the beating, he heard someone bark the order; “Shoot!” and gunshots tore the air. “I heard the shots and I knew my friend was being shot as I heard officers saying, “Amepatikana leo.”

History in Kenya tells how assassinations are planned and covered up because the top security men and women are the appointees of the president. That is why under the Jomo Kenyatta era, when JM Kariuki, Tom Mboya, Ronald Ngala, Pio Gama Pinto, Argwings Kodhek, Bruce McKenzie and Kungu Karumba perished in circumstances, which left a lot to be desired in a civilized society like Kenya-Till today Kenyans have not been told who killed them and why.

Pinto was assassinated on the morning of February 24, 1965 as he drove his car home with his year old daughter on the back seat. Achieng Oneko termed the killing brutal and deliberately planned (Daily Nation, July 5, 2001).

In 1975 when JM Kariuki was assassinated GSU Commandant was Ben Gethi-who was part of the murder conspiracy.

Come Moi regime, Dr Robert Ouku is killed. When the Commission of Inquiry set up to unearth the truth about his grisly murder in February 1990, the inquiry was stopped prematurely just when the commission was about to interrogate Hezekiah Oyugi, who was the Permanent Security in charge of internal security at the time of Mr. Ouko’s death (Sunday Nation, March 18,2001).

All who knew about Ouko’s death have mysteriously died. Oyugi died later after contracting a rare ailment known as the motor neurone syndrome soon after being released from police custody where he had been held for questioning.

The report had it that on the night of February 13, 1990, Ouko was dragged from his bed in his Koru home and his body was found later that morning by a local herdsboy who ever since disappeared mysteriously. Dr Ouko served in the government from colonial times through the presidencies of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi. He was an MP for Kisumu Town.

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