political killings in kenya

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Political Assassinations in Kenya

PoliticalAssassinationsi n K e n y a

KumekuchaC h r i s


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First published in 2011 by Kumekucha

This edition published in 2010 by Kumekucha

Copyright Kumekucha 2011

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of thispublication may be made without written permission. No paragraph ofthis publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save withwritten permission.

Kumekucha Email: [email protected]

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My dad, who taught me politics

Dedication


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CONTENTS

Introduction.........................................................................Pg 7

Chapter one: Pio Gama Pinto.........................................Pg 8

Chapter Two: Tom Mboya......................................Pg 17

Chapter Three: State Security Murderers..............Pg 34

Chapter Four: JM Kariuki.....................................Pg 43

Chapter Five: Mr Fix it Njoroge Mungai................Pg 49

Chapter Six: Robert Ouko.....................................Pg 60

Chapter Seven: Masinde Muliro...........................Pg 92


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IntroductionShortly before the new Kenyan constitution was promulgated inAugust 2010 a friend quipped in my hearing that constitutionsare often written in blood.

How true. For our beloved motherland to reach where it hasmany Kenyans have had to lose their lives fighting for a betterKenya. In this book I focus on four who in my view were the mostimportant. And in doing this I acknowledge that there were manyothers who have gotten killed just because of their politics. I didnot leave them out because their deaths did not matter. On thecontrary their blood is

I have written this book in simple English and in a style I hope isentertaining and easy to read. All this because my wish is that asmany Kenyans as possible read this book so that we never forgetwhere we have come from.

That way we will never lose track of where we are going.

Chris Kumekucha.


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The first political assassination happened in Kenya when thecountry was barely 2 years old.

It was a scene straight out of the movies.

The backdrop was early morning, February 25, 1965 and PioGama Pinto hurriedly finished his breakfast and hurried to hiscar with his 6 year old daughter. He was going to drop her inschool on his way to work.

He reversed his Volkswagen Beetle out of his driveway which wassituated around where Sarit Centre stands today in WestlandsNairobi. Eye witnesses say that somebody who was standing at

Chapter One:Pio Gama Pinto


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the gate suddenly called out his name and as Pinto looked he wasshot at close range. He died on the spot.

We now know that an innocent man called Kisilu Mutua wasarrested and charged for Pintos murder and sentenced to lifeimprisonment. He was released shortly after Mwai Kibaki tookover power in 2003 and used his then immense powers to granthim a presidential pardon. It was clear that like many observersthe third president of Kenya was convinced of the mansinnocence.

In retrospect this was the very first major political assassinationand it was a real mystery. Nobody could quite figure out what hadhappened. But as the years rolled on the dark shadowy figuresbehind Pintos death begun to emerge. They got cocky and sure ofthemselves as they felled one Kenyan after another. Impunity

Pio Gama Pinto


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grew to the point where it could no longer remain hidden in theshadows.

Early Life

But let us take a brief look at the life of Pio Gama Pinto before wediscover why he had to stop an assassins bullet.

At the age of eight, he was sent from Kenya to India for hiseducation and spent the next nine years there. He studied thearts for two years before joining the Indian Air Force in 1944 fora short time. When seventeen, he started agitating against thesystem which kept so many people of Goa in poverty.

In 1949 he returned to Kenya and, after a succession of clericaljobs, became involved in the local politics aimed at overthrowingcolonialism. Kenya at that time was still under British rule. Heturned to journalism and worked with the Colonial Times and theDaily Chronicle. In 1954, five months after his marriage, he wasrounded up in the notorious Operation Anvil and spent the nextfour years in detention on Manda Island. He was kept inrestriction from early 1958 until October 1959 at the remoteKabarnet.

In 1960 he founded the Kenya African National Union (KANU)newspaper Sauti Ya KANU, and later, Pan African Press, of whichhe subsequently became Director and Secretary. He was activelyinvolved in the 1961 Elections and contributed immensely to theKANU victory. In 1963 he was elected a Member of the CentralLegislative Assembly. In July 1964, he was appointed a Specially


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Elected Member of the House of Representatives. Also in 1964,he worked late hours to establish the Lumumba Institute, whichwas principally used to train Party Officials. He was a member ofthe Board of Governors and took keen interest in its functions.

Assassination

In Nairobi, on February 25, 1965, Pinto was shot down at closerange while reversing from his driveway. He was with hisdaughter in his car at the time of his killing.

Pinto was survived by his wife, Emma; his eldest daughter, Linda,age six; the second, Malusha, age four and a half; and theyoungest, Tereshka, one and a half years old.

In the course of working on my Kumekucha blog I came acrosssome fascinating information that clearly explains why Pinto waskilled and those behind his assassination.

Both Tom Mboya and Pio Gama Pinto feared for their lives andsuspected that they would be killed a few weeks before theirdeaths.

Fascinatingly, a week before Pintos murder Mboya warned Pintothat he would be assassinated, according to my impeccablesource. This information shocked me because Pintos murder hasalways been a mystery and Mboyas name has even beenmentioned as one of the people in the then powerful KanuKenyatta camp that sanctioned the assassination. The theorywent that since Mboya supported the Americans and Pinto was


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left leaning and together with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga wereclose to the Russians, Mboya decided to get rid of him. Thistheory has never made any sense. What was the motive?

My source says that Mboya told Pinto that despite theirideological differences Pinto needed to get out of the countrybecause he was going to be killed. Mboya said that it was not inhis power to prevent this happening. Pintos response was to askMboya why he was warning him. Mboya then said that he couldnot keep quiet about such a thing. Sadly Pinto did not believethat Kenyattas inner circle were capable of murder. He toldMboya that his assassination would cause too much of an uproarin the country. Mboya insisted that they were still going to do it.

But even more shocking are revelations of a confrontationbetween Pinto and Kenyatta in parliament buildings shortlybefore Pinto was warned by Mboya. (Few people know that Pintoand Kenyatta had a long history. Right from the days whenKenyatta was detained, Pinto used to run errands for him andfund raise for him as well). Pinto had discovered that Kenyattahad allocated himself a total of 50 farms in Central province andRift valley. Some of the farms had poor Kikuyu squatters whowere to be evicted. Others were farms that had been owned bywhites and sold back to the Kenyan government. Pinto wasincensed by this and despite making overtures to Kenyatta not togo ahead with the evil he was doing, Kenyatta adamantly stuck tohis guns. Pinto decided to move a vote of no confidence inKenyatta. Kenyatta confronted him within the precincts ofparliament and challenged him over his planned censure motionagainst Kenyatta. When Pinto refused to back down Kenyatta


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called him a bastard to which Pinto immediately responded bytelling Kenyatta in front of witnesses and other cabinet ministersthat he (Kenyatta) was also a bastard. A stunned friend pulledPinto aside and asked him how he could call Kenyatta a bastardto which Pinto retorted, he called me one first. It was shortlyafter this incident that the decision was made to kill Pinto.

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had arranged for Pinto to hide inMombasa and if necessary sneak out of the country from there.However Joseph Murumbi (who was to be appointed VicePresident later that year) heard about this and said it was notpossible for Kenyatta to kill Pinto. He promised to speak toKenyatta himself and diffuse the situation. He told Odinga to putPinto on the train back to Nairobi and pick him up from thestation.

The day of Pintos death he was to move the motion in theafternoon session. Two fiat cars drew up at his house thatmorning. They were both taxis. The drivers had been paid Kshs7,000 each to do the job. There were plain clothes CID officerswith them in the car to ensure their escape. Pinto was killed incold blood. It has never been revealed before but it was therealization that Pintos assassination had been carried out byKenyatta insiders that led to the resignation of Joseph Murumbias Vice President. (More on Murumbi in a minute).

Some months later a friend of Pintos got a phone call from aman who claimed he knew Pintos killers. They agreed to meet.The man said he was a taxi driver and knew who had pulled the


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trigger. They (Pintos friend and the taxi driver) then went to abrothel where the man said the killer frequented. He said healways wore a red shirt. Some time later the man came out of thebrothel somewhere in Westlands. The man surprisingly admittedto being the killer. He said that some CID officers hadapproached him for a job and had paid him Kshs 7,000. Heargued that it was so much money for a poor man in those daysthat he quickly agreed.

My informant confirmed that the main instigator of theassassination within the Kenyatta kitchen cabinet was oneNjoroge Mungai, an MP, the presidents nephew and personalphysician. He was called Mr Fix it by his colleagues within thedreaded inner circle of President Kenyatta. This mans name wasto come up again in Tom Mboyas assassination later as we shallsee. This group that surrounded Kenyas first president was alsoreferred to as the Kiambu mafia because they all hailed fromKiambu where Kenyatta came from.

Who was Joseph Murumbi? Very little is known about Kenyassecond vice president. There is even a huge mystery surroundingthe circumstances that led to his abrupt resignation after servingfor only a few months in office. This article unearths somefascinating revelations about the man.

After Jaramogi Oginga Odinga resigned from the Kenyattaadministration (actually he was forced out without being tolddirectly to leave by political frustration and pressure


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masterminded by one Tom Mboya) Kenyatta appointed JosephZuzarte Murumbi as vice president.

Kenyas second Vice President was a fascinating character and itis said that too little has been written about him (partly due tothe fact that the man kept his mouth firmly shut until his deathin 1990 at the age of 79.) He was the offspring of a Goan traderand a Maasai mother but spent the first 16 years of his life inIndia. After that he travelled the world extensively and at onetime worked in London as press and tourist officer in theMoroccan embassy.

Mystery has always surrounded Murumbis sudden resignationon August 31st 1966 after serving as VP for only 15 months. Thetruth is that it had a lot to do with disillusionment for one whohad very high ideals when giving themselves to serving theirbeloved motherland.

To understand the whole scenario better, picture a typicalKenyan today in the Diaspora who gets a chance to get involvedin the politics of their homeland after years of working abroad.That kind of person is bound to be extremely patriotic and eagerto do good for their country. They are also likely to be veryidealistic in their approach to things. Now you can begin tounderstand the disillusionment Murumbi must have encounteredas VP to a president who together with equally bloodthirstyselfish individuals surrounding him were amassing land andwealth like there was no tomorrow. But the final straw forMurumbi was probably the discovery (years after it had


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happened) that his close friend Pio Gama Pinto had beenmurdered by the Kiambu mafia and that he was partlyresponsible for that death by confidently calling him out of hiding(as we saw in an earlier chapter of this book).

Lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee agrees and says; The assassination ofPinto illustrated to Murumbi the shocking extent to which thenew government had departed from its promises. His feeling,evidently, was that these were not the values for which so manyhad suffered, and (from then on) his departure was effectivelyonly a matter of time.

Pinto was assassinated on February 25th 1965 and Murumbi wasnot VP at the time. So what is meant here is that Murumbi wasalready disillusioned with the Kenyatta government before hisappointment as VP and probably thought that he would changethings as the second in command. It is also possible thatMurumbi would not have known for sure who ordered the hit onPinto until he had served several months as Vice President wherehe was bound to come across a lot more privileged informationthan an ordinary minister would ordinarily have access to.


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The day I was working on this chapter of the book, I saw in thenews that a magnificent statue of Tom Mboya had been erectedin central Nairobi actually 50 metres away from where Mboyahad been shot on July 5th 1969 at about 1 pm.

At long last!!!!

So if you are in Nairobi you can look at this monument in honourof one of the truly great sons of Kenya. It is right outsideStandard Chattered Bank head office on Moi Avenue.

Thomas Odhiambo Mboya was born on August 15, 1930 inKilima Mbogo, near Thika town in what was called the WhiteHighlands of Kenya to a sisal picker from Mbita in Nyanza.

Chapter TwoChapter TwoChapter TwoChapter TwoTom MboyaTom MboyaTom MboyaTom Mboya


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From this humble beginnings Mboya rose to be one of thefounding fathers of the Kenyan nation and the main brainsbehind the successful push for independence.

Staring out in the Trade Union movement, Mboyasorganizational skills were immediately evident, more so underthe very difficult conditions of the time. From a disorganizedalmost non-existent movement Mboya ultimately changed theface of trade unionism at the time within a very short time. Heincreased membership dramatically and introduced effectiverepresentation for the first time for many downtrodden,mistreated African workers at the time.

It was within the trade unions that he developed his publicspeaking skills and confirmed his amazing organizational skillsthat were to serve him well in his political career later.

Tom Mboya


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The state of emergency had been declared in 1952. It remained in1957 long after the colonial administration had ruthlesslyclamped down on the Mau Mau, basically a group that wasfighting for the return of their land taken over by Europeansettlers (and not independence as is widely claimed).

In fact by 1957 when elections were held that would see the first 8Africans join Legco (the Legislative council or parliament of thetime), members of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru tribes were notallowed to take part in any political association unless theyobtained a loyalty certificate. These were the communities thathad been most active in Mau Mau and the fight for their ancestralland to be given back.

What is important here is not the way Mboya brilliantly beat anolder, married and much more famous man in lawyer ArwingsKhodhek, or the fact that most of the voters were from theKikuyu tribe and still shunned their own Munyua Waiyaki, whowas also in the race, and chose Mboya instead. It was mainly thatthe youngest politician was able to quickly send a telegraph toeach of the other 7 African elected leaders as the results came in.Nairobi as always was announced first but the other territoriestook time.

The only two names of the other elected leaders in March 1957that will make sense to most Kenyans today are those of DanielArap Moi and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga (Raila Odingas father).

In his congratulatory telegram, Mboya invited them to a meetingin Nairobi. This single act did more than anything else to bring


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independence to Kenya, for a simple reason. The 8 leaders wereable to map out a strategy on their approach in the Legco thatwould see them reject the two 3,500 sterling pounds a yearministerial post offers. Thanks to Mboya and despite endlessdifficulties, the 8 remained united and speaking in one voice (atleast most of the time).

One of the first things that the newly elected African leadersasked for, was more representation in Legco, since Africans werethe majority in the country anyway. They asked for another 15elected members in Legco.

Right up to independence the brains behind the Africanleaders strategy was Tom Mboya. In 1957, when Mboya waselected into Legco, he was only 27 years old. Imagine a youngster,not yet 30 leading the fight for independence?

Naturally some people did not take it kindly. In fact some peoplewithin the 8 African leaders in Legco were naturally very jealousof the young man. Mboyas biographer David Goldsworthypaints a perfect picture of the situation then. He clearly pointsout in his book Tom Mboya the man Kenya wanted to forgetthat Mboya was young ambitious, brilliant and proud and yet thelikes of Oginga Odinga who hailed from the same tribe wascontinuously being upstaged and outsmarted by the youngster.The older man felt that he deserved some respect from theyoungster.

Coming out of the London constitutional conference of 1960, asMboya made the cover of Time, it was clear in the eyes of many


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that this youngster (just 30 then) was the front runner to be thefirst President of Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta was still languishing injail. This is what a leading British newspaper had to say aboutMboya and Kenyatta at the time.

As a thoroughly modern African, Mboya is often compared withJomo Kenyatta. Even those who consider Kenyata guiltless of anyconnection with Mau mau have noted that he (Kenyatta)passionately defended some irrational beliefs of the kikuyu tribe.He justified female circumcision in his book, Facing MountKenya. But Mboya has no respect for any of the traditions oftribalism.

Then Odinga struck. He issued a statement to the press sayingthat the African leaders wanted the release of Kenyatta beforeindependence. Rather than having a love for Kenyatta, thisstatement was a political move targeted directly at Mboya. As anAfrican leader representing cosmopolitan Nairobi, the majorityof his votes came from the Kikuyu. Mboya knew that anystatement that was vaguely not in sync with that of Odinga onKenyatta would be political suicide for him.

So to cut a long story short, Kenyas first president (and all otherpresidents after him to date) was a compromise candidate.Kenyatta was released from detention on 22 August 1961.

Still Mboya had everything going for him. He was a young,ambitious and brilliant politician who had almost single-handedly master-minded the non-violent fight for Uhuru. It


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appeared that time was on his side. But sadly fate had otherideas.

David Goldsworthy in his epic book, Tom Mboya: The ManKenya Wanted To Forget points out that Mboyas Americanfiends had offered him extra security months before hisassassination, which he declined. It is clear that it was felt thathis security was a joke.

Why did Mboya not seem to be scared for his own life? The truthis that Mboya was very worried for his life and told a number ofclose friends that his life was in danger. Why then did he notaccept the extra body guards and strengthen his security? This isa mystery that will probably never be solved.

Still there is no denying that Mboya was a very brave manindeed. Having launched his political career in the 1950s againstthe dreaded colonial government, and survived, it seems thatboth his past and the huge and growing national popularity heenjoyed may have conspired to give him a false sense of security.

Mboya probably felt, quite rightly, that despite the governmentsuneasiness with him, they would surely not dare take his life.

Those close to the Kenyatta administration had already startedusing their position and power to accumulate vast wealth.Impunity had already started rearing its ugly head in Kenya.Mboya was a hindrance, because he could see what washappening and he was also a smart political operator. Actually he


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was the only thing that stood between them and untold riches. Tomake matters worse, there was general election slated for later inthe year (1969) and there were all sorts of rumours flying around.Including one to the effect that Mboya would challenge PresidentKenyatta for the presidency.

Then there was this issue that ironically was the very same onthat was destined to cause the murder of foreign minister RobertOuko 21 years later. Everybody knew that Mboya held a lot ofsway with the Americans and it was even believed that he was aCIA operative. This blogger has found evidence that supportsthis.

This influence he had with super power America, really unnervedKenyatta and his kitchen cabinet. Just three years earlier theAmericans had ruthlessly influenced things in Zaire (DemocraticRepublic of Congo) and had brought their man Mobutu SeseSeko to power, causing the assassination of charismatic PrimeMinister Patrice Lumumba. This had been done right under thewatchful eyes of other European powers like the French and theBelgians who had longer associations with Zaire. Lumumbasassassination was extremely brutal because his body was cut intomany small pieces which were then burnt. The idea was to leaveno trace of the man.

The Kenyan government was very close to its former colonialmaster Britain and it did not take too much imagination topicture the same sort of thing happening in Kenya. Congo wasextremely significant to the Americans because it was rich in


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minerals and more so because of one particular type of mineralthat was found in Congo Uranium. In the same way, Kenyasposition made it a very strategic place for the Americans in theevent of a war with the Soviets.

If the Congo situation were to be repeated in Kenya, there was nodoubting whom the Americans would favor for the presidency. Ithad to be their own man Mboya.

Mboya probably made things worse for himself from theefficiently clinical and ruthless methods he had used to consignhis nemesis Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to political oblivion.

The Kenyatta administration had used Mboya as independentKenyas first minister for constitutional affairs to water down theLancaster House Independence constitution by dismantling thefederal-like aspects in the document pushed through by rivalKADU at the constitutional talks in London. This was done whiletransferring a lot of power to the presidency. One master strokeof constitutional-changing genius Mboya forced Jaramogi out.Mboya simply proposed a new party structure where the partywould have 8 vice presidents, one from each province. Thisamendment sailed through and effectively wiped out the powerbase of the then party vice president. Jaramogi resigned in a huff.But Mboyas craftiness did not end there. Yet anotherconstitutional amendment, this time in parliament swiftly sailedthrough requiring that any candidate who changed politicalparties would have to seek fresh mandate from the people. Thisamendment still haunts politicians in parliament to this day.There is a particularly messy situation in parliament that


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emerged in 2004 where there were virtually no MPs left in theoriginal Narc which won an overwhelming victory in the lastgeneral elections.

In early 1969, Jaramogi swiftly registered the KPU (KenyaPeoples Union), but Mboya was a step ahead and was alreadyworking on water-tight technicalities (a different one for everypopular KPU candidate) that would disqualify them at thenomination process, leaving the Kanu candidates to sail throughto election victory.

The writing was clearly on the wall having Mboya as anopponent in any political contest was just plain suicide. It wasclear that this was a very dangerous man indeed. Something hadto be done.

Kenyattas inner circle just had to find a way to deal with Mboya,if they planned to stay in power so as to continue with therampant corruption and land grabbing.

This is the most plausible of all motives for the assassination ofMboya

Kingsway House: Building In Nairobi That Holds DarkSecrets

JMs torture and shooting happened here. My impeccablesources insist that Mboyas assassination was also planned andexecuted from this eerie building.


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Kingsway house still stands proudly at the corner of MuindiMbingu street and University way with one side facing theUniversity of Nairobi.

If buildings could speak, then this particular building would haveplenty to say from its rather notorious history. Especially theside that houses offices which are accessed through a small doorthat is easy to miss along Muindi Mbingu street.

This building once housed the notorious dreaded Special Branchand what has happened here in the past would make the NyayoHouse torture chamber look like a kindergarten. It is said thatthis is the building where the late JM Kariuki was tortured andinterrogated, even shot, before being killed and dumped at NgongForest. That was sometime in early March 1975.

It is also believed to be the building where the assassination plotthat took the life of one of Kenyas most illustrious politicians,Tom Mboya was planned. A prominent reader of Kumekuchawith a fascinating past, passed on this information to me Briefinquires and research supported this amazing allegation. In lateryears this building came to house Kenya Times, the Kanu dailypaper and I personally visited this building many times over theyears.

Im really not the superstitious type but there is something aboutthat building that can only be described as eerie, and that was thefeeling I used to get years ago before I even discovered any of thisparticular buildings dark secrets of the past.


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One set of secrets that many Kenyans would have liked KingswayHouse to reveal, if buildings would talk, was the planning ofdetails that led to the assassination Of Tom Mboya.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that whoever planned andexecuted the murder of Mboya had access to impeccableintelligence information. The day before Mboya wasassassinated; he arrived at the then main EmbakassiInternational airport from a conference he had been attending inAddis Ababa Ethiopia. The Standard newspaper on the morningof his assassination carried a photograph of Mboya arriving andwaving to somebody who must have been at the waving bay inthe airport. However, to have planned and executed thisassassination, the person or persons who plotted must have hadthe information about Mboyas arrival back into the country, theday before.

More significantly, they must have also been aware of the factthat on most Saturdays Mboya would release his bodyguard anddrive himself around the city alone, as he did on that fatefullunch time in 1969. Mboyas white Mercedes Benz was easilydistinguishable in the considerably lower traffic in Nairobi inthose days. It is highly likely that the killers were also aware thathe was a frequent visitor to Chaanis Chemists where on thefateful day he had gone to purchase an ointment for a skinailment he had had for years.

Mboya was a creature of habit and that is one of the aspects thatcost him his life. Whilst it is possible that Mboyas killersfollowed him to Chaanis chemist, it is more likely, from eye


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witness accounts at the time, that the assassin waited nearbyknowing very well that Mboya was on his way. There were nomobile phones in those days, and therefore once again, thisminor detail in the whole execution of this murder points straightat official involvement by persons with access to thegovernments (more specifically, the government securitypersonnels) communication network.

Eyewitness account indicate that as Mboya was in the chemist ashort man with a balding head and a brief case could be seenhanging around outside, as if he was window shopping. Hewaited and the minute Mboya stepped out into the streets again,there were two loud bangs and Kenyas minister for economicplanning fell backwards on the door to the chemist. He wasquickly whisked back inside the chemist by the couple inside whohad known him for years. They claim he said nothing beforelosing consciousness before their very eyes.

It is even more significant that the assassination did not takeplace in the more deserted areas of the city in the drive fromJogoo House, where the Treasury and Mboyas office as Ministerfor Economic Planning was then situated, To Government Roadwhere he was shot. Instead it took place in the much busierGovernment Road (Moi Avenue today, next to the Standard Bankheadquarters). As usual this place was busy with the Saturdaylunchtime crowd and interestingly enough plenty of securitypersonnel, who arrived at the scene of the shooting withinmoments of the incidence. If you get my drift, this was noamateur job. It was a well-orchestrated, intricately planned wellexecuted assassination that had access to vast resources.


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It is instructive to note here that there had been an earlierattempt on Mboyas life either early in 1969 or towards the end of1968. A policeman guarding his house apparently went berserkand emptied several bullets at his official vehicles back seat. ButMboya was not in the vehicle at the time. The policeman waslater arrested and charged. The intricate planning and executionof this second successful attempt seems to suggest that theplotters were categorical that there should be no slip-ups thissecond time.

Some people have suggested that there were some foreign powersinvolved in his assassination. There is nothing to suggest this. Infact the point where he was shot seems to point a finger straightin the direction of the government of the day. It was likesomebody wanted this thing done as far away from governmentoffices as was possible. The Saturday lunchtime crowd was alsoan advantage because in the confusion, the killer would quicklyget away (which he did).

There is even a theory that there was more than one gunman atthe scene on that day in July just in case the first gunman failedto hit his mark.

All this detail are hidden away, probably forever in the darkcorners of Kingsway House, Nairobi.

5th July 1969. Kenya had recently celebrated its sixthanniversary of internal self rule (Madaraka day) the previousmonth on June 1st. Kenyans were optimistic in those years andwere working hard to build their young nation and ensure a


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better future for their children. Little did they know that therewere serious problems and infighting amongst their key rulerswhich was about to explode on the streets this sunny afternoon.

It was a Saturday like any other in the city centre in Nairobi.Nairobi in those days was a neat nice place to be proud of and theovercrowded bustling streets were yet to come. It was lunch timeand Kenyans were going about their business unaware of the factthat the history of their country was about to be irreversiblychanged in a very dramatic and bloody way.

Minister of Economic Planning and MP for Bahati, a Nairobiconstituency Tom Mboya left his office for the weekend. Hereleased his driver and body guard and headed for Chaanischemist along Government Street (Moi Avenue today) driving hiswhite Mercedes. This chemist is still there today.

If he was carrying the days newspapers (like he liked to do) hewould have had a copy of the East African Standard with him. Onthis broadsheet (it was a huge newspaper in those days and onlygot reduced to the tabloid size many years later) there was aphotograph of him on page 1. It showed him striding confidentlyalong the runway at Embakasi International airport where he hadlanded from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He had been there on officialbusiness.

As he parked the car, he would not have noticed a short bald manwith a brief case walking slowly towards the chemist where thecabinet minister was about to enter. He bought his usual


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prescription medicine for a nagging skin ailment and had ahearty chat with the Asian couple who owned the chemist. Hehad known them for years.

Outside the bald man in a brief case waited.

Mboya stepped outside the chemist and there were two extremelyloud bangs of a revolver going off. Tom Mboya fell back on theglass door of the chemist. Blood oozing out of his fatal wounds inthe chest and head.

He was rushed to Nairobi hospital in an ambulance but waspronounced dead shortly after arrival. By about 3pm thatafternoon the remains of Tom Mboya were in the City Mortuaryalong Ngong Road.

The country was in shock. Who had killed Mboya and why? Astate funeral was quickly organized even as violence broke out onthe streets of Nairobi, President Jomo Kenyatta personally issueda statement on radio and TV saying the usual things. No stonewould be left unturned to bring Mboyas killers to book and theother usual stuff about the dead man being a fallen hero and all.He lied to the whole nation when he knew very well exactly whowas responsible for Mboyas brutal killing and more importantlywhy he had been murdered. Or rather the personal cause forwhich he had had to lose his life.

Ironically probably the only man of Kikuyu descent who wasallowed to set foot on Rusinga Island to attend the Mboya funeralthe following weekend was another Kenyan by the name of


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Josiah Mwangi Kariuki or JM Kariuki. He had been Kenyattasprivate secretary before he fell out with the old man. He did notknow it but barely six years later he would also be assassinated,for the same cause that his good friend Tom Mboya had just diedfor. His murder would be much more painful and he would havehis private parts cut out (it is widely believed that this was donewhile he was still alive). His body would be found badly burnt byacid and with his private parts stuffed into his mouth. A clearmessage that he was silenced for something he said.

So Mboya rested with his ancestors on Rusinga Island. Death hadcome too early, he was not yet even quite 40 yet. But what abrilliant political career he had had in his very short life. In facthe had almost become the first President and founding father ofKenya. Almost... Sadly almost is never good enough and that iswhy this man is basically forgotten. Younger generations ofKenya do not know who the hell he was. They just know he gotshot in the streets.

All this was of course deliberate and that is why the only fullbiography ever written on Mboya by a man who never met him aprofessor from University In Australia is titled, Tom Mboya -the man Kenya wanted to forget. David Goldsworthys book waspublished in the 80s after Kenyattas death in 1978.

The Kenya of that time or rather the leaders of the time weredetermined that Kenya should forget TJ as quickly as possible.Two new presidents have come since that beastly incident - Moicame and went and now Kibaki is president.


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Mboya was survived by his wife, Pamela Mboya and their fivechildren, including daughters Maureen Odero, a high court judgein Mombasa, and Susan Mboya, a Coca-Cola executive whocontinues the education airlift program initiated by Tom Mboya.Their sons are Luke and twin brothers Peter (died in 2004 in amotorcycle accident) and Patrick (died aged four). After Tomsdeath, Pamela had one child, Tom Mboya Jr., with AlphonseOkuku, the brother of Tom Mboya. Pamela died of an illness inJanuary 2009 while seeking treatment in South Africa.


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When Kenya became independent we inherited a system thatrelied heavily on intelligence gathering from the British colonialmasters. The British have always been known for their efficientintelligence services built over many decades. Its chief aim hasalways been to protect her majestys interests. It took a veryshort time for the young Kenyan nation to re-focus thisintelligence network towards the protection of the Presidentsinterests. As I said earlier, because of the power vested in thepresidency by the Kenyan constitution then, anything thattouches on the presidents interests is a matter of state security.

To this day, President Kibaki gets security briefings on a regularbasis.

Chapter Three:Chapter Three:Chapter Three:Chapter Three:State SecurityState SecurityState SecurityState Security

MurderersMurderersMurderersMurderers


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To understand political assassinations well you must understandwhat security of the state means in a country like Kenya. For thisreason it is imperative to focus on the assassination of popularNyandarua North MP Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, better known asJM Kariuki.

It is ironic that the main action of both JMs murder and that ofTom Mboya took place within metres of each other in the citycentre in Nairobi. Mboya was shot outside Chaanis Chemistswhich still stands right next to the Standard Bank headquarters.You can clearly see the location when you stand outside theHilton Hotel right across the street. The Hilton hotel is the placewhere JM Kariuki was last seen alive in the company of the thenGSU commandant Ben Gethi. The two men entered a car anddrove away. We now know that they went to Kingsway Housewhere JM was tortured and shot in the arm in a curious incident.It is reliably said that JM lost his temper when he was beingquestioned about some cash donated to the Mau mau that wasentrusted to him. The MP happened to be carrying a firearm onhim (even in the interrogation room) which he drew but BenGethi was faster on the draw and got to his weapon first and firedat JMs arm to disarm him. The MP did not lose consciousnessbut started bleeding profusely from the gunshot wound on hisarm.

Later he was dismembered, and dumbed on the edge of theNgong Forest in the outskirts of Nairobi where a Maasaiherdsboy found the body days after he had been reportedmissing.


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So who was this Ben Gethi guy and what did the GSU have to dowith state security matters?

It is said that Ben Gethi was related in some way to presidentKenyatta and was therefore one of his most trusted lieutenants.In retrospect it becomes a little clearer why he was such a highprofile GSU commandant. It appears to have been a cover ofsome sort for his real role in government at that time. Gethi wasvery well trained by none other than the Israelis. He played avery important role in putting together the crack paramilitaryGSU which appears to have been a crack extra presidential guardunit at the time. GSU stands for General Service Unit. To put it inthe words of our reader, Gethi was at the tip of the spear that wasstate security in the Kenyatta era.

In view of this, It is very clear that Gethi must have knownsomething about the planning and execution of the Mboyaassassination. This writer now has reason to believe that thewhole plot revolved around him and Kenyattas inner cabinet,including the likes of Mbiyu Koinange. In fact the descriptiongiven of the man seen by eyewitnesses gunning down Mboya, fitsthat of Ben Gethi himself. And Gethi actually resembled theconvicted killer of Mboya, one Nahashon Njenga. Let us avoidspeculation here, but it is important to note that the operation toassassinate Mboya was intricately planned and requiredsomebody with a lot of experience in using firearms (we havealready seen how Gethi beat JM to the draw easily and firedaccurately at his arm). Just try and imagine for a moment what


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the implications of a failed assassination attempt on Mboyas lifewould have been at the time? It would have without doubtbrought down President Kenyattas 6 year old government at bestor brought about violent chaos and killings. Also the fact that twoshots were fired at close range tells you that the idea here was toensure that Mboyas chances of survival were nil. Those shotswere too accurate, fired by a professional. This profileunfortunately does not fit Nahashon Njenga, a Kanu politicalactivist linked to the youth wing whom Mboya knew well.

It is now crystal clear that Gethi was part and parcel of the teamthat were involved with state security at the time, the team thatwould have had to find a solution to the Mboya threat. Gethiplayed the important role of both foot soldier and co-ordinatoramongst the various security organs that were involved.

Ironically one of the chief investigators of the Mboya murder,was one Ignatius Nderi. Nderi was destined to be the CIDdirector when the next major political assassination took placewith the murder of JM kariuki.

Gethi was of course taking his orders from above. Many refer toMinister of State in the office of the President who was clearly incharge of internal security then, Mbiyu Koiunange. In receivingthe JM report from the parliamentary select committee PresidentKenyatta insisted that Mr Koinanges name be removed from thereport.

To date nobody has been brought on trial for JMs murder andneither has the mystery of the big man Njenga kept on referring


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to as the one who ordered the hit on Mboya, ever been solved.But you can fill in the dots.

Some cold cases (unsolved murders) have a way of almostresolving themselves with the benefit of hindsight. Hindsight islike a birds eye view. By looking at the whole picture or getting abirds eye view of the situation one is able to put the pieces of thejigsaw puzzle together much more easily.

For a long time now, I have carefully studied all the evidencelinked to the Mboya murder. The JM and Ouko case were a littletoo obvious and to date these are virtually solved cases, the onlyproblem is that the perpetrators have not been brought to book.

The recent Standard newspapers raid, the Ouko murder, thebrutal JM killing and the Mboya assassination all have one thingin common. All were matters of internal security or security ofthe state and were handled as such. When you understand thissimple fact all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fall very neatly intoplace.

I have just been studying details of all four cases once again andthey all bear uncanny resemblance. Before we go into that it maybe a good idea to define national security (state security, internalsecurity, they all mean the same thing).

Here is what the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has to say;

National security refers to the public policy of maintaining theintegrity and survival of the nation-state through the use of


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economic, military and political power and the exercise ofdiplomacy, in times of peace and war.Measures taken to ensure national security include: using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats maintaining effective armed forces using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threatsand espionage, and to protect classified information

I want you to take careful note of the third point mentioned. Todefeat and avoid threats. To protect classified information. Allthree assassinated Kenyans were seen as threats. Threats to thepresidency and therefore threats to national security (more onthat later).

Ouko was murdered after a controversial trip to the United Stateswhere it is rumoured that he had easier access to the then USPresident George Bush Senior than did President Moi. That was athreat to National security.

JM Kariuki was never the same person after the death of his closefriend Tom Mboya. It seems that the assassination so angeredhim that he started agitating for change. JM started talking aboutnot wanting a Kenya where there were 10 millioniares and 10million beggars. It is believed that he was referring to the personsclose to the then President Kenyatta who were using theirposition to amass colossal amounts of wealth throughcorruption. JM had been Kenyattas private secretary and musthave witnessed first hand the way the president wasaccumulating land for himself like there was no tomorrow. It issaid that JM could even turn up at harambee meetings being


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presided over by the president and donate more money than thepresident. Remember the threat to the internal security of KingSaul in Biblical times when the women sung that shepherd boyDavid was killing tens of thousands but King Saul was killing onlythousands? And to think it was only a song.

The implication here was that JM was trying to prove in publicthat he was better than the president. The guys he was dealingwith had already felled a Mugumo tree called Tom Mboya andhad no qualms doing the same with JM and this time, theytortured him first. Even cutting out his private parts. We nowknow that the same building where Mboyas murder was plannedand finalized as well as executed is the same building where JMwas taken in and tortured for hours on end.

What information were the security guys looking for by torturingJM? A good guess is that they wanted to know what foreignsupport he had. They had already decided to execute him andwere simply mining information out of him first.

Tom Mboya had been in line for the presidency when JomoKenyatta was out of the picture and still in detention. Mboyasgreatest undoing and the reason why he was viewed as such ahuge threat to internal security was the fact that he was veryfriendly with the Americans. In fact he had direct access toAmerican Presidents like John F. Kennedy and PresidentJohnson, who took over after Kennedy was assassinated. Forsome unexplained reason, Mboya never really hit it off withRichard Watergate Nixon, and must have turned in his grave


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when the Watergate scandal broke and brought down Nixonspresidency.

The Americans had just organized something in Zaire wherecharismatic Patrice Lumumba had brutally been removed fromthe picture and replaced by their darling, Mobuto Sese Seko. TheAmericans could easily organize the same in Kenya. After all theydid not like the dominance of the British (who were very close tothe Kenyatta government.) This was the reason why Kenyattaand the inner cabinet were so terrified of Mboya.

Were the British consulted on this one? It is very likely that theywere. Mboya as I have said was a Mugumo tree and thegovernment may have wanted reassurances that incase of anyserious backlash, they could count on the support of the British.Here it is interesting to note that during Mboyas funeral serviceat the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi, President Kenyatta wasvisibly so shaken (there was rioting going on outside, that washow popular Mboya was) that he was unable to read the eulogy.It was done for him by a cabinet minister and MP from Nyanza,Mr Ayodo.

Now the big revelation here is the Standard raid. Here we havethe advantage that a cabinet minister admitted in public that itwas a matter of national security. Going by what has happened inthe past, chances are very high that whatever it is the Standardnewspapers were about to publish touched on (you guessed it)the President. Now your guess is as good as mine as to what thebig issue was about exactly. Anglo-leasing? The Arturs? Whoknows.


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You will have noticed that internal security seems to mean thesame thing as presidential security. In young states in Africa, itdoes. If you doubt it, look at what happened in Somalia.Everybody cheered when strongman Siad Barre was overthrown,but look what followed - chaos. To date order has not beenrestored and there has been no peace.

Part of the problem is that there is too much power vested on thepresidency meaning that a threat to the presidency can truly be athreat to the security of the state.


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Both Pio Gama Pinto and Tom Mboya had been shot. Anyinvestigator familiar with profiling in solving murder cases willtell you that J.M. Kariukis killing was much more personal.

But why was it so personal? We shall attempt to answer thatquestion in this chapter.

J M Kariuki had obviously been tortured and although acid hadbeen poured over his body in an attempt to completely hide hisidentity if his body was ever found, there were signs of torture onhis body. So badly burnt was he that his wife had to identify himwith a scar that was high up on his thigh. But most brutally of allhis private parts had been cut off. Many believe that this wasdone when he was still alive.

Chapter Four:Chapter Four:Chapter Four:Chapter Four:JM KariukiJM KariukiJM KariukiJM Kariuki


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Early life

J. M. Kariuki was born in Kabati-ini town in Rift Valley province.He was born to Kariuki Kigani and Mary Wanjiku. He was theonly boy in a family of five siblings. In 1938, he briefly enrolled inEvansons Day School, but dropped out shortly due to lack ofschool fees. He then started working for the settlers farm until1946, when he won a bet in Nakuru Horse races. Using the betsproceeds he then enrolled himself back to a string of schools andwas able to finish his primary school education in 1950. Later, hejoined Kings College in Ugandas Wakiso district for hissecondary education.

J.M. Kariuki


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Political life

J. M. Kariukis political life probably started in 1946 in earnest,after listening to a Kenyatta speech denouncing the way colonialgovernment was handling the natives in a political rally. Itshowever likely he was political earlier than that. His parents hadearlier on been forced to leave their home area, Chinga, locatedin the Nyeri native reserve, back in 1928 to work in the whitehighlands. There, they became squatters on a European settlersfarm and were expected, as was the case with other Africansquatter families, to do the regular and seasonal jobs for wages.Such a life trauma was certainly likely to have made him political.

While in Uganda for his secondary education, he closely followedthe struggles that local Kenyans were facing from the Europeansettlers. On 22 October 1952, he finished his secondary schooleducation and returned to Kenya. Shortly after that, Kenya wasplaced under state of emergency by the new Governor, Sir EvelynBaring, and Kariuki joined the Mau Mau uprising. After Kariukitook his oath, he started working as Mau Mau liaison officerbetween Eldoret and Kisumu. He also helped in soliciting money,boots and housing for Mau Mau. This led to his arrest in hishotel, which was working as a front to his political work. He wasthen detained in various camps (including Kowop and Langata)from 1953 until his release, seven years later in 1960.

After his release, he managed to secure Kenyattas approval instarting Nyeris Kenya African National Union (KANU) branch byvisiting him in detention. When Kenya became independent,


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Kariuki worked as Kenyattas private secretary between 1963 to1969. In late 1960, Kariuki relationship with Kenyatta becameincreasingly strained as Kariuki became increasingly vocal ofKenyattas policy. Some of their disagreement were:

* Government corruption.* The widening gap between rich and poor due to drought andthe oil shock of 1973.* Deteriorating relations among East African Communitymembers.* Unfair distribution of land: After independence, UnitedKingdom government gave Kenyatta government funds to buyback land from the white settlers and redistribute it back to thenatives. However, the land was never redistributed, but most of itwas handed over to Kenyatta and his close friends.

In 1974, he was elected as Nyandarwas Member of parliamentand became an assistant minister in the Kenyatta governmentbetween 1974 and 1975.

That campaign was interesting and may have been what causedthe Kenyatta inner cabinet to make the decision to kill him. Thisis because JM Kariuki was forbiddened to campaign and speak tovoters. The government feared quite rightly that he would speakagainst the president and the land he had grabbed. And so all JMdid was print posters with his photograph and a caption thatsaid; If this man has done nothing for you, dont vote for him. Hewon by a landslide.


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This was despite Kenyatta government pulling all strings at itsdisposal to avoid his re-election as his popularity threatened toovershadow the government of the day. He was last seen alive atthe Hilton Hotel, accompanied by Kenyattas bodyguard onMarch 2, 1975. Several days later, Kariukis remains were foundby a Maasai herdsman, Musaita ole Tunda, in a thicket in theNgong Hills. His fingers had been chopped off and eyes gougedout. His private parts had also been removed and stuffed in hismouth.

Kariuki wrote Mau Mau Detainee, an account of his experiencein camps during the uprising that lead to Kenyas independence.

Quotes* Kenya has become a nation of 10 millionaires and 10 millionbeggars.

* Every Kenyan man, woman and child is entitled to a decentand just living. That is a birthright. It is not a privilege. He isentitled as far as is humanly possible to equal educational, joband health opportunities irrespective of his parentage, race orcreed or his area of origin in this land. If that is so, deliberateefforts should be made to eliminate all obstacles that today standin the way of this just goal. That is the primary task of themachinery called Government: our Government.

* We fought for independence with sweat, blood and our lives.Many of us suffered for inordinate days directly and indirectly.Many of us are orphans, widows and children as a result of the


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struggle. We must ask: What did we suffer for, and were wejustified in that suffering?

Death Investigation

A Parliamentary Select Committee was immediately establishedto investigate the circumstances surrounding Kariukis murder.The Committees report implicated a senior police officer,Joginder Singh Sokhi, senior administrative officers andpoliticians, but no one was ever punished. It is most likely thatthe committee was the means used by Kenyattas government tomitigate a potential revolt. When the report was finally released,the anger had subsided and likelihood of revolt much lower.


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I can already see myself inspecting a guard of honour.

Those were the words of a man who never became president butdeeply desired to become the occupant of State House. They wereconfidently spoken in the mid seventies as President Kenyattashealth deteriorated as he drifted in and out of frequent comas.

The man who spoke those words is still alive today and his nameis Njoroge Mungai. The Stanford trained medical doctor who wasso ambitious that legend has it that he one day asked the agingpresident to declare him heir apparent, was also a nephew tofounding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

Chapter Five:Chapter Five:Chapter Five:Chapter Five:Mr Fix it, DrMr Fix it, DrMr Fix it, DrMr Fix it, Dr

Njoroge MungaiNjoroge MungaiNjoroge MungaiNjoroge Mungai


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In any event by the time Kenyatta died in 1978, peacefully in hissleep, it looked like nothing could stop another Kiambu Kikuyuascending to the presidency and that is exactly how theauthoritative Time magazine analyzed it. Even when Moi tookover in an acting capacity, most analysts agreed he was simply apassing cloud. They all put their money on the ruthless but smartDr Njoroge Mungai.

In fact in the mid 70s an oath had been taken amongst thoseclose to president Kenyatta declaring that the presidency wouldnever cross River Chania. Crossing River Chania would meanthat the presidency would pass on to a Kikuyu from Nyeri. Inother words they were sure that the presidency would remain inthe Kikuyu community and so crossing the river Chania as theonly threat.

Dr Njoroge Mungaiin a recent photo


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Then things started happening. Charles Njonjo, himself highlyambitious and after the presidency played his political cards welland red-carded the powerful Njoroge Mingai to political oblivion.Njonjo himself was later red-carded by Mois kitchen cabinet ledby the likes of Nicholas Biwott. The other powerful figure, MbiyuKoinange died shortly after President Kenyattas death.

But who is Njoroge Mungai?

The following article will give you a deep insight into the man. Itwas first published at:

http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2006spring/mungai.html

Some call him one of the last of the freedom fighters, forMungai took part in the movement to free the East Africannation from British rule in the early 1960s and was part of thegovernments inner circle in the first decades of independence.

Hes the guy who is responsible for keeping Kenya on a safe pathwhen all around us was falling down like Somalia, Sudan andUganda, recalls Colin Forbes, MD, a professor of pediatrics atthe University of Nairobi whom Mungai recruited to Kenya some40 years ago. He had a dynamism about him that was typical ofthe Americans of the 60s.

Today, Mungai, 79, lives in semi-retirement on the outskirts ofNairobi, where he grows roses for export on his 45-acre farm. His


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home a two-storey red brick and stone structure with a three-car garage rises up at the end of a long, dusty road. A full-size,stuffed lion, flanked by cheetah- and leopard-skin rugs, greetsvisitors in the foyer.

Medicine and politicsHes still an elegant, slender man, dressed in a gray wool suit andstriped tie and wearing black metal-rimmed glasses. In typicalKenyan style, he eschews all serious questions until his guestshave something to drink orange, pineapple and apple juice,served on a veranda that overlooks a vast open field and thegreenhouses that supply his business, Magana Flowers. (Maganais his rarely used first name, Njoroge, his middle name.)

Mungai, Stanford medical school class of 1957, is believed to bethe first American-trained physician in Kenya. He has fondmemories of Stanford, where he was the only black in his medicalschool class of 60 students and one of few blacks in Stanfordsentire undergraduate program, from which he graduated in 1952with a degree in biology.

I learned many things at Stanford, he says, soft-spoken butdeliberate in his speech. I learned medicine at Stanford. Ilearned politics at Stanford. And I learned mixing with all kindsof people communicating with people from various parts of theworld.

His Stanford training prepared him to serve as Kenyas ministerof health and housing, overseeing the establishment of a healthinfrastructure in the country. Later, he led the ministries of


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defense and internal security, foreign affairs, and environmentand natural resources.

Mungai is from a distinguished Kenyan family; he is the firstcousin of the late Jomo Kenyatta, a leader of the Mau Maurebellion and Kenyas legendary first president.

Still, Mungai came from humble roots. His father was a cook atthe local Presbyterian mission in Nairobi and later opened ageneral merchandise store. Mungais parents encouraged himand his five siblings to get an education; because the youngMungai could read and write, he started doing odd jobs at thelocal hospital after being treated there for a leg infection.

After high school, he wanted to study medicine in the UnitedStates but couldnt get a passport from the British colonialauthorities. So he went to South Africa, where he got his degreein hygiene from the University of South Africa. Still determinedto go to medical school, he left for London and from there madehis way to the United States on borrowed funds. He arrived inSan Francisco with 3 cents.

After a year as a Stanford undergraduate, when he completed thepre-med requirements, he entered medical school onscholarship. He was well-respected among his peers, whorecognized that he was not your ordinary medical student, saysclassmate Al Hackel, MD, an emeritus professor ofanesthesiology and pediatrics at Stanford who would later roomwith Mungai during their internships at New Yorks Kings CountyHospital. Mungai specialized in internal medicine.


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He was different very mature. He was a little older, and heknew how to have a smile and laugh. We knew he was someonespecial, and we took good care of him, Hackel says. He was avery friendly, bright man who obviously had a different futurethan the rest of us.

While Mungai was in California, there was trouble brewing backhome, as the insurgent group known as the Mau Mau wasengaged in what would become a bloody fight for Kenyasindependence. As a student, Mungai says he used to go toBerkeley and other cities around the United States countering thewidespread British propaganda about the Mau Mau through talksand demonstrations. After his training, he returned to Kenya atthe height of the conflict.

Kenya was in a state of emergency, and I couldnt just be adoctor in a place where you have an emergency. You had no say,no control, he says.

So he joined the political fray. If you have to get independence,you have to soil your hands, dirty your hands in politics, he says.Its not very clean, but you have to do it if you are going to getanything.

He became secretary to the Kenya African National Union, whichwas launched in 1960. It served as the countrys ruling party forthe next 40 years. He also traveled to Britain in 1960 to take partin drafting the countrys new constitution, the same documentthat is the source of much political strife in Kenya today.


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Mungai served as the personal physician to Kenyatta, who wasimprisoned by the British for seven years for his politicalactivities. Mungai visited Kenyatta during his time in prison,where he found him to be suffering from malnutrition; Kenyattarecovered after his release.

Mungais connection to Kenyatta pulled him into politics. WhenKenya declared independence in December 1963, the newpresident tapped him for the health minister post.

At the time, few Kenyans had access to health care as mosthospitals were mission hospitals located in major cities, he wrotein a 1964 article in Stanford MD, the medical schools alumnimagazine at that time. So he set about establishing a nationalsystem of government-run hospitals in the countrys 74 localdistricts a system that continues to this day.

Before becoming health minister, he also worked with privateinterests to build a clinic and maternity hospital in Thika, as wellas a clinic in Riruta, both near Nairobi. To help counter thecountrys serious shortage of doctors, Mungai looked to the Westfor a partner to help him start Kenyas first medical school, at theUniversity of Nairobi. He approached Stanford, among others,and ended up inking an agreement with the medical school atMcGill University in Montreal, which supplied some 50 facultymembers to teach at the new African school. The medical schoolopened in 1967. Today, it turns out 100 graduates each year.


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Mungai gave up the practice of medicine in 1964, as he turned hisattention to the world scene as the countrys minister of defenseand internal security and later, foreign affairs. Kenyatta preferredto stay close to home, so Mungai represented Kenya abroad. Hisdining room is peppered with pictures of him posing with foreigndignitaries Britains Prince Charles and former Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher, and Americas Ralph Bunche, the UnitedNations diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

It was a time when the Cold War was at its peak, and thoughAfrican countries remained nonaligned, the continent was astaging ground for many covert operations, he says. Heencountered spies from the Soviet Unions KGB, Israels Mossad,Britains MI6 and everybody else. Hes proud of his role asdefense minister in helping suppress the misinformationemanating from these spy networks which could have done alot of damage to Kenya, he says.

As minister of foreign affairs in the late 60s and early 70s,Mungai believes one of his biggest accomplishments was bringingthe U.N.s Environment Program to Kenya, the only countryoutside the West where the U.N. has a major presence orheadquarters.The only competition that Kenya had was the U.S., and Kenyawon, Mungai recalls with a smile. That was a very bad thing todo to the country that gave me an education. You seemungrateful, he says, chuckling at the idea of defeating asuperpower.


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While Kenya thrived economically after independence, it beganto lose ground in the mid-70s and early 80s. Mungai notes thatit was a blow to the country, for instance, when major U.S.companies such as Ford Motor Co., Caterpillar and John Deeremoved their operations from Kenya to South Africa.

Kenya also became torn by political conflicts that continue to thisday, with disagreements over the proposed new constitutionpresenting one of the countrys major challenges, says Mungai,who retired from politics in 1993. He speaks with disappointmentabout Kenyans simplistic and sometimes violent debate over theproposed constitution. Before the vote on Nov. 21, 2005, heargued for withdrawing the document and rewriting it to meetthe approval of the overwhelming majority of people.

You require something that binds people together, not opensdifferences, he says.

Fifty-seven percent of the voters rejected the proposed newconstitution in the Nov. 21 referendum. In an e-mail, Mungaisays he was pleased with the outcome, as the proposedconstitution would have left far too much power in the hands ofthe president. He notes there were several amendments to thedocument during the previous administration of President DanielArap Moi that made Moi a virtual dictator.

He also argues that the proposal to give one-third ofparliamentary seats to women would bring more disagreementthan unity making women appear inferior and weak, unableto succeed in their own right, which has not been the case.


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The defeat of the constitution has thrown Kenyas governmentinto disarray and threatened the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, whosucceeded Moi.

Despite the political turmoil, he remains optimistic about Kenyasfuture, predicting a return to a period of political and socialstability in which the countrys primary industries coffee, tea,floriculture and horticulture can thrive.

Hes surrounded by flowers these days, though he knows all isnot rosy for the nation he helped shape. Still, as in his medicalschool days, he knows how to have a laugh.

When a visitor asks the way to the powder room, he answers witha smile: Go into the foyer and through the door. Just pass by thelion if you dare.

To the outside world Njoroge Mungai is a respected Stanford-trained medical doctor. But to those who are familiar with howNjoroge Mungai operated within the Kenyatta regime he was theruthless Mr fix it behind all the poliical assassinations duringJomo Kenyattas rule.

In the course of my research I met somebody who knew Mungaivery well when he was in the States and they read what I wrote


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about him in my blog and could not believe that the man hadturned into the brutal person I described.

It is clear that the man underwent a swift transformation being amember of the inner cabinet and was a key figure in theassassinations of Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki.

So arrogant was Mungai that he would promptly take overleadership of foreign delegation led by the then Vice PresidentDaniel arap Moi. He would make all the decisions and even barkorders at the vice president. It is said that what used to irk himmost was the deep Kalenjin accent and stammering Vicepresident whom Njoroge felt was portraying a bad image ofKenya.

Njoroge Mungai could also not stand Tom Mboya and was one ofthe cabinet ministers who used tribalism to put down politiciansfrom Luo Nyanza referring to them as uncircumcised. Indeed onmany occasions during cabinet meetings conversations would becarried out in Kikuyu as the rest of the cabinet waited forPresident Kenyatta to come in.

But most of all Mungai did not earn his nickname Mr Fix it fornothing. He was the member of the inner cabinet who liked totake on problems head on. Including threats to the security of thestate and presidency. He dealt with them ruthlessly and readersof this book will have observed his handiwork from the politicalassassinations described in this book.


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Robert Oukos assassination was the major political assassinationduring the rule of president Daniel arap Moi.

Out of all the political assassinations that have taken place inKenya, the Dr Robert Ouko murder is unique in many ways.

One of the major differences is the fact that it is the only onewhere foreign investigators were involved. And there lies thebiggest mistake that the Oukos killers made and it haunts themto this day. It is the reason why they will forever always belooking over their shoulders with lots of anxiety and fear. It isalso the reason why the chairman of the Parliamentary selectcommittee set up to investigate the murder, Gor Sunguh, hasbeen telling close friends and associates that he still receivesdeath threats two years after his committees business was

Chapter Six:Chapter Six:Chapter Six:Chapter Six:Robert OukoRobert OukoRobert OukoRobert Ouko


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concluded. It matters little that the controversial selectcommittee set up in 2003 got absolutely nowhere.

This is also the reason why those who killed Ouko (who are wellknown) will not retire from politics quietly but are in fact seekingto influence the outcome of the forthcoming general elections.The whole idea is to ensure that the mystery of the Ouko murderremains just thata mystery and is never solved. And also so thatlight will never be shed on the subsequent murders of numerousother Kenyans and a few foreigners in direct connection to thatgruesome political assassination.

One of the consequences of bringing in foreign investigators isthat there is plenty of forensic evidence locked up somewhere inBritain, so that even where virtually all the possible witnesses are

Dr Robert Ouko


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now dead, the forensic evidence mainly supervised by one DoctorIan West (now deceased) is still available and waiting. Waitingfor that day that will inevitably and surely come. That day thatthe killers dread so much

It is instructive that those involved in the murder of Tom Mboya(some of whom are still alive today) are not as anxious as thekillers of Ouko. Neither are the cold blooded Kenyans whomurdered and dismembered the body of JM Kariuki so anxiousand paranoid of being brought to book, at least those who are stillalive and well in Kenya today. In fact these guys are verycomfortable and quietly enjoying themselves far from politics.

Yet in the case of Ouko there would appear to be absolutely noreason at all to fret. After all Kenyans have forgotten about themurder of the best foreign minister the country ever produced. Itis no longer in the agenda, so to speak, let alone being a priority.Still, those with the blood of Robert Ouko on their handscontinue to have plenty of apprehension. Even with their vast ill-gotten wealth and resources, which ensure that they can easily goto court anywhere in the world to sue anybody who may come upwith anything incriminating or pointing a finger in theirdirection.

Before I tell you the real amazing reason why Ouko died it isimportant to read a report from a Ugandan newspaper that wasfaxed and photocopied and delivered all over Kenya that detailsthe killing of Ouko. It is not entirely accurate as we shall see laterin this chapter but it gives us a pretty good idea on how exactlyOuko died and is a good place to start;


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Minister killed in Operation Bikini succession

Minister killed in Operation Bikini succession the inside story,By a Correspondent in Nairobi, as published in Weekly Topic ofUganda, September 6, 1991, (Reproduced verbatim)

Through errors of omissions and commission the late Kenyasminister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Dr.Robert John Ouko caused his murder on February 12, 1990.

Oukos problems are said to have started in 1983 when he fell outwith Hezekiah Oyugi the then Permanent Secretary in the Officeof the President in charge of Internal Security and ProvincialAdministration. Oyugi was then a Provincial Commissioner inMois home province of Rift Valley and was said to enjoy powersbeyond even his boss, Permanent Secretary J. Mathenge whomthe former later succeeded. Having been business associates in anumber of commercial ventures, Ouko and Oyugi parted ways.The immediate consequence was the demotion of Ouko from theglamourous Foreign Office to an obscure Labour Ministry inOctober 1983. Oukos relegation was due to advice from Oyugi,who is the only personality from Nyanza who enjoys Mois totalconfidence.

In the next four-and-a-half years, Ouko was kept on his toes.He shuffled around in every reshuffle to ministries of labour,industry and economic planning - an average of a new ministry


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every 18 months. Meanwhile, Oyugi and his mentor were busylooking for a replacement in Oukos Kisumu Rural Constituency.The only man who was ready to challenge Ouko anytime andanywhere was Joab Henry Onyango Omino, a popular formercivil servant and a successful businessman-cum-sportsadministrator. Moi and Oyugi were not ready to back Ominosince the latter had the undesired qualities of being popular andprincipled. But while Ouko was unpopular on the domestic front,internationally he had as a career diplomat, cultivated a likeableimage and had many useful friends. It was on these friends thathis temporary political survival and also his eventual demisewould hinge.

Thatchers role

As a family friend of the Thatchers, Ouko saw his only hope onthe assistance of Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister,who had unlimited sway over the Moi government. So, when theelection campaigns began and he saw his political coffin beingmade, Ouko flew to Britain and spent a night as the guest ofDennis and Margaret Thatcher in their country home. Thepurpose of the visit was to prevail upon Moi to return Ouko. TheIron Lady, having her own imperialist designs in Kenya, wentbeyond what Bob Ouko had asked for. Her country havingpropelled Moi to presidency and her, personally, havingsustained him, Thatcher was once again shopping for Moissuccessor, as the Kenyan dictator is said to suffer from acuteleukemia and cancer of the throat. Maggie was also aware that


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Moi was going to fire his Vice President Mwai Kibaki. She,therefore, not only asked Moi to rig Ouko to parliament, but alsoto appoint him (Ouko) the Vice President.

Moi complied only partly with the directive. He indeed riggedOuko back to parliament despite Ominos landslide victory. Asfor the number Two slot, the Kenyan President had his ownscheme. He was paving a succession path to the presidency forhis nephew and long time manager of Mois personal estate,Nicholas Kiprono arap Biwott. Instead, Ouko was handed backthe Foreign Affairs portfolio. The Number two post went into thehands of Josephat Njuguna Karanja, a former Vice-Chancellor ofthe University of Nairobi, who had recently been imposed uponthe people of Mathare as their Member of Parliament. Karanjastenure as the VP was shortlived as he was removed in veryhumiliating manner only twelve months later. George KinuthiaMuthengi Saitoti, an associate professor of topology and formerchairman of the Department of Mathematics at the University ofNairobi was appointed to take over the vice presidency.

Maggie Thatcher and her mentor Ronald Reagan (and laterReagans successor George Bush) were not amused by Moisrefusal to take their orders. They were also not comfortable withMois continued association and reward for people who massivelylooted public coffers of billions of dollars. Whenever Moi sentOuko on the numerous begging missions to solicit more aid, thedonors showed concern about the diversion of the aid money toforeign secret accounts in Europe. Among the leading looterswere Biwott; Saitoti ( who had headed the treasury since 1983);


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Eric Kotut, the Governor of Central Bank of Kenya (CBK);Kipngeno arap Ngeny, the Managing Director of Kenya Postsand Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC); Arthur Magugu,once the Minister for Finance; Bethwel Kiplagat, PermanentSecretary for Foreign Affairs; Benjamin Kipkorir, ChairmanKenya Commercial Bank; Sam Ongeri, Minister for TechnicalTraining; Mark Too (Mois son who is Deputy Chairman, Lonrho)and Hezekiah Oyugi, sarcastically known as the Governor. As atthe end of 1988, estimates by the International Monetary Fund(IMF) showed that more than US $4 billion was held in overseasaccounts by Kenyans. Other sources indicated that in the firsthalf of the year 1988, alone, US $175 million was siphoned out ofKenya into foreign accounts. Ouko confronted Moi the facts andthat was his error number one. Moi was not amused by this hardevidence. This was in October 1989. Order was immediatelyissued that Ouko be shadowed round-the-clock.

The Washington debacle

Things came to a climax when Moi and his team including Oukovisited the US on January 1990. The main purpose of the visitwas to persuade President Bush to prevail upon the Congress notto suspend aid to Kenya. The Congress and a number of donoragencies had threatened to freeze assistance to Kenya due toKenyas well known record gross violation of human rights,diversion of aid money to individuals foreign accounts,corruption and lack of accountability in the government. While inWashington, Moi and his delegation met three congressmenDonald Tayne, Tonny Hall, and Paul Simon in an attempt to


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persuade them to convince the Congress not to block a US $60million military aid Moi was soliciting from the US. They alsoheld talks with high-ranking officials of the World Bank and IMF.The talks, however, did not bear much fruit and only ended inMoi being given stiffer conditions to fulfill before any assistancecould come forth. A meeting with the US Assistant Secretary ofState in charge of African Affairs, Michael Cohen was equallyfruitless. Interpreting his presidents public humiliation as afailure on his (Oukos) part as a Foreign Affairs Minister, Oukoused his experience in the world of diplomacy to try and arrangea face-saving private meeting between Moi and Bush. In such ameeting, nobody would know whatever transpired between thetwo Heads of State, and would believe whatever is reported. He,therefore, secured an audience with the US Secretary of StateJames Baker and managed to persuade the latter to prevail uponPresident Bush. Ouko was, thus, invited to meet Bush.

The three - Bush, Baker and Ouko - are said to have met for fortyminutes before President Bush agreed to grant Moi an audience,in the presence of Baker and Ouko. The meeting took only tenminutes, according to reports. During the ten minute talks, Moiis reported to have been given a number of conditions forcontinued assistance, including putting someone with knowledgeof economics in charge of Treasury as opposed to topologistSaitoti; democratization of Kenyas politics; release of all politicalprisoners and improvement of Human Rights record; makingOuko his Vice President as well as ensuring that money smuggledout of Kenya was brought back. Moi was not particularly pleasedwith the apparent rapport between Bush and Ouko.


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After the meeting, Moi addressed a news conference, where hewas in-undated with a barrage of what he consideredembarrassing questions like torture of suspects at NyayoHouse, mass imprisonment on trumped-up political charges,street shooting by the police, discrimination of ethnic SomaliKenyans, persecution of the clergy and rampant corruption. Moihad no ready answers to these questions. Once again, in a bid tosave his boss from

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