There have been numerous calls for the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Kenyans in Rift Valley who may have incited the killing that errupted after the rigged 12/27/07 Kenya election.

Why is this man hidding in Kenya after being resposible for causing the death of about a million Rwandese???

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The alleged mastermind of the Rwanda 1994 genocide, Felicien Kabuga, could be hiding and living a luxurious life in Kenya, under the protection of a powerful Western government, ironically among those nations leading efforts to arrest him, we can reveal.

Kabuga mystery resurfaces in Kenya

1. [image: Kabuga]

High placed police sources who agreed to our interviews on condition of anonymity say that In fact in November 2004, he was briefly arrested and locked up at Kilimani Police Station, before being let free after high level intervention.

No less a person than Kenya’s Attorney General Amos Wako admitted in an interview recently that Kabuga had escaped the police dragnet four times before asserting, “he can run but he cannot hide we will catch up with him.”

The renewed interest on Kabuga returns to Kenya after the High Court Tuesday froze his assets in Kenya inclusing banking of rent from his Nairobi Spanish Villa’s that were being banked in a Belgium account owned by the wife.

Kabuga, who has been on the run for the last twelve years, is on 24 hour armed guard has changed houses in Nairobi at least four times, a local Interpol police officer and one of the police constables who were brave to arrest the fugitive with a $5 million (Shs.375m) bounty on his head told unuwasi.com in exclusive interviews.

“I can tell you in confidence, that the man is in Kenya and every time word spreads about his whereabouts he is whisked to another hide-out,” the Interpol officer confided.

We have learnt that Kabuga – a multi-millionaire businessman wanted by Rwandese authorities, has lived in houses in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa, Muthaiga and recently South C – one of our sources even took us to three of Kabuga’s former homes in Nairobi and pledged to return with the address to his current residence.

” On the day three colleagues of mine and I arrested Kabuga and booked him in the cells, we were called aside and told that we should be careful about such arrests, because he was not only being shielded by senior security bosses but also by (a powerful Western government),” our source who was among those who arrested Kabuga in 2004 narrated. (He actually named the nation involved and we have just paraphrased for professional reasons)

Questioned by a local journalist on the issue, Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua, , said, “ we cannot completely say that Kabuga is not in the country but we are looking for him, and anybody with information should bring it to us so that we can take him back to Rwanda to face justice.”

“This government has no business protecting criminals from other countries, we are already focused on fighting rising cases of crime in our country we do not want to add other criminals from other countries, once we know where they are, we will just arrest them and ship them back home,” Mutua argued.

The mystery of Kabuga’s Whereabouts…

At one time, shortly after the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) took power for the first time under President Mwai Kibaki in 2002 , Pierre-Richard Prosper, US ambassador at large for war crimes claimed that Kabuga, an alleged financier of the genocide, has been using his personal wealth to buy protection from Kenyan authorities, but we have established that though Kabuga has been paying for his high level security, the arrangement is under the blessings of a powerful Western government.

Prosper further charged that Kenyan informants had reported that Zakayo Cheruiyot, the then Permanent Secretary for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, is among the Kenyan officials who have been providing protection to Kabuga.

Cheruiyot is now an elected Member of Parliament for Kuresoi – a Rift Valley Constituency, which further complicates the search for a man who has been linked to even local medics.

Late last year the medic – a consultant cardiologist at Mater Hospital Dr Gerald Yonga was grilled by detectives from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers who visited him at his office at 8 am.

“They told me they had information that I have been treating Kabuga or his relatives but I told them I never have,” he said.

He was questioned in the presence of his lawyer Ambrose Weda.

Kabuga “has been using Government infrastructure to maintain fugitive status in Kenya,” Prosper claimed.

However Prosper noted, “We’re very encouraged with the new Government,” he said, adding he is uncertain as to whether the change in administration will have an effect on Cheruiyot’s status.

However, at the peak of the allegations, Cheruiyot denied giving protection to Kabuga, the alleged mastermind of mass murders.

Cheruiyot said he has never seen Kabuga and dismissed claims he was protecting him as “outrageous and unfounded”.

The debate on where exactly Kabuga is hiding came back to the public limelight, end of July 2006, when Kenya’s ambassador to Rwanda, Alex Keter told a leading Rwanda newspaper that the “Kenyan goverment is not completely sure that Kabuga is not in Kenya.”

He went ahead to call for “anyone with information that would lead to his arrest to forward it to the relevant authorities.”

“My government and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) officials are trying to track down Kabuga,” Keter said.

Queried on the same issue in a live Press Briefing Alfred Mutua agreed that ” the government cannot be a hundred percent sure that Kabuga is not in the country.”

“We are however determined to arrest him and bring him to justice the whole world is looking for him, and we are part of that effort anyone with information should give it to us,” Mutua answered a question on if the government was aware of Kabuga’s whereabouts in the country.

The Rwandese parliament on its part says the continued presence of the most wanted Rwandan Genocide fugitive Félicien Kabuga in Kenya seriously strains the two countries’ relations.

A Member of Parliament, Henrietta Mukamurangwa,is on record saying that Rwanda has made concerted efforts to make alliances with the Kenyan leadership but they were being hamphered by issue of Kabuga.

CHERUIYOT’S DEFENCE

“I want to categorically deny these allegations. They are malicious and are intended to cause disaffection,” Cheruiyot said.

He said this was smear propaganda by foreign a news agencies. He added that he has already instituted legal proceedings against the agencies.

Cheruiyot said when word went round that Kabuga was in Kenya, he instructed the then Commissioner of Police Philemon Abongo to investigate and take the necessary action.

Cheruiyot at the time said at no given time had he met Kabuga as alleged by the US investigators.

Cheruiyot said he was capable of defending himself if called upon to do so.

BACKGROUND

Kabuga is believed to have used his resources to buy materials for the killings in Rwanda.

The State Department estimates that 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, died at the hands of Hutu militants in a 100-day period in 1994.

The Rwandan war crimes tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania, is seeking Kabuga and a number of other fugitives.

The 1998 indictment by ICTR indicates that Kabuga was the main supporter and financier of the Interahamwe militia, responsible for the 1994 Genocide that claimed over a million lives.

Though the United States has offered a US$5m bounty on his head, Kabuga has managed to elude capture by the ICTR and other security agencies for 12 years.

Keywords: rwanda kenya

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Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 15:31:36 -0400

From: Lucia Akech

Subject: WHY WOULD KENYA BE HIDING A GENOCIDE FUJITIVE