Kenya Insights

Tag: Security

  • Police Impersonation And Their Public Relations

    Police Impersonation And Their Public Relations

    Keeping law and order has been proved to be every country’s biggest agenda. No one is safe until they feel safe. As much as safety starts with you, there are State personnel specially and specifically deployed to make sure there is law and order.

    Keeping law and order in Kenya is the mandate of the Police. Who operate under Kenya police Service. In well and clearly divided divisions, the Kenya Police Service make sure there is law and order as well as justice.

    These are the people who make sure that our rights are protected. They make sure there’s a calm environment that promotes political stability hence economic development. These are same people who literally have the nation’s security details at their hands.

    Also read: DCI: We Do Not Require Huduma Namba During The Application Process

    Now, when we start hearing and reporting the cases of police imposters scattered everywhere in our country makes our entire security setup a joke.  This causes lots of unnecessary instability. This discloses a lot of loopholes in our security set up. These imposters make people start thinking about how to protect themselves.

    Our security system was supposed to guard us internally and externally. This goes with a very thin margin of era. As I write this, I have been a victim couple of times to these police imposters. First was administration Police with a fake combat. Then Traffic police with unmarked reflector jackets and funny radio calls.

    But many people get into bad hands of plain clothes officers.  A lot of people are extorted by civilians pretending to be corps. This even gets worse when such imposters get hold of the real police radio calls and handcuffs. One wonders if they collude with The Police in service to commit these crimes or they have their way in, to our security system.

    Again, I was recently arrested by Police imposters who refused to talk to someone I had saved with a name similar to the Police spokesman. They even refused to take me to a nearby Police station. I had no cash on me and was not willing to provide any. That angered them and made them chain me for more than 5 hours in their Toyota wish car that had dusted plates. I was, fortunately, let loose after getting money from a friend who brought it in cash. They also ‘caught’ other citizens who paid off their freedom.

    How will we notice that these aren’t the Police? Our security set up works differently according to; who you are.  Where do you come from? Where do you stay? Rule and divide.  Divide and rule. Then protect. There is a section of people who can’t be arrested without a warrant. There are people who can’t be arrested without seeing and verifying the police identifications.

    Then there are the majorities who have no clue of what to check, demand or even do. They just get arrested and start negotiating for their release price. Well, everyone should agree with me that that is just the way these Police Officers operate. The public knows that the police will always charge you with an offense. Be it framed or not, no judicial officer cares as far as the police say so.

    The police have neglected the fact that they are supposed to introduce themselves. With all the identification of them being hidden, arise the cases of police impersonation. Hidden identities are the cause of all these menaces.

    It’s also the duty of the government to make sure that police identifications and budges are hard to fake and easily recognized by the civilians.  We all have duty to protect ourselves and others, which includes those who protect us and the nation at large.

    Kenya is a failing State and Police are still using colonial tactics to make our streets safer again. We have Police in our countries capital City that care less about law and order yet they are the ones that are mandated to do the very same thing. ‘Kukula na kirauni” that’s what folks know. At night in Nairobi, you get arrested for nothing and you have to pay something to be freed. The system is skewed against men and media has been used to shield this and portraying men as ‘city gangstas’.

    If security starts with me, then I have to be well equipped with knowledge concerning the security and part of the basic security details every single citizen should know.

     

  • Three Years On Westgate Attack Victims Yet To Get Closure, Hidden Truth

    Three Years On Westgate Attack Victims Yet To Get Closure, Hidden Truth

    WARNING: Some of the images you might find graphic 

    On Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, the Somali militant group al-Shabab carried out an assault on Kenya’s Westgate Mall in one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history. A group of young gunmen stalked the halls and stores of the upscale Nairobi shopping center, and methodically murdered at least 67 people. News of the attack seized the world’s attention, dominating international media coverage for days.

    But much of that reporting was confused and contradictory, mirroring the litany of false and misleading statements made by Kenyan authorities. There were between 10 and 15 gunmen, the interior minister said. Two or three of them were Americans, said another cabinet minister. Together they took hostages, used heavy explosives, and pulled off a three-day siege, according to other government sources. Except none of these things were true.

    Far from a dramatic three-day standoff, the assault on the Westgate Mall lasted only a few hours, almost all of it taking place before Kenyan security forces even entered the building. When they finally did, it was only to shoot at one another before going on an armed looting spree that resulted in the collapse of the rear of the building, destroyed with a rocket-propelled grenade. And there were only four gunmen, all of whom were buried in the rubble, along with much of the forensic evidence.

    During the roughly three-and-a-half hours that the killers were loose in the mall, there was virtually no organized government response. But while Kenyan officials prevaricated, an unlikely coalition of licensed civilian gun owners and brave, resourceful individual police officers took it upon themselves to mount a rescue effort. Pieced together over 10 months from more than three dozen interviews with survivors, first responders, security officers, and investigators, the following account brings their story to life for the first time since the horrific terrorist attack occurred exactly two years ago.

    One of the victims wreaths on pain
    One of the victims wreaths on pain

    By late Saturday afternoon, all four gunmen were holed up in a storeroom at the back of Nakumatt. They never came out again. Most of the at least 67 people who were killed at Westgate died in the first hour of the attack, before any rescue effort had even begun. Kenyan security forces did not launch their operation until 4:00 p.m., by which time it was already too late: Most of those who would escape had already escaped; most of those who would be wounded had already been struck; and most of those who would die were already dead. It is likely that many of the victims bled to death in the slow hours between the start of the attack and the arrival of help.

    The elite Recce Squad, eventually entered from the rooftop car park. Kenyan soldiers entered from the ground floor. Neither group was in communication with the other. Soon afterwards, there was a shootout on the first floor between the Recce Squad and the soldiers, in which the police unit’s commander was killed and another two officers were wounded. The remaining Recce Squad members pulled out of the operation in disgust, and the army, too, withdrew.

    Recce Squad inside Westgate mall, Nairobi
    Recce Squad inside Westgate mall, Nairobi

    After the friendly fire incident, Westgate became a military operation. Armored personnel carriers with heavy machine guns patrolled in front of the mall; soldiers with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades moved in and out; and sporadic gunfire and explosions echoed from within. On Sunday, Kenya’s interior minister claimed that there were as many as 15 attackers and that the siege was ongoing. By that time, however, the mall was mostly under the army’s control. On Monday, a rocket fired by the Kenyan army collapsed the back of the mall, dropping the rooftop car park into the basement, pancaking the room where the terrorists had taken shelter and throwing a thick plume of smoke into the Nairobi sky. The fire burned for days. Parked cars with full fuel tanks fell into the gaping hole and exploded like bombs.

    The heat, toxins, and structural instability of the building kept FBI agents brought in to run the forensic investigation from gathering any evidence for weeks. When they finally set to work, what they found were the charred remains of three bodies, alongside parts of three assault rifles, in roughly the location where the storeroom had been — and far from any other human remains. The fourth gunman is also believed to have died in the fire. The fragments of spine and jaw recovered by the FBI were so burned, and at such high temperatures, that neither teeth nor DNA would have likely offered much clue to the assailants’ identities.

    KDF soldiers making an entrance to the mall
    KDF soldiers making an entrance to the mall

    Before and after blowing up the mall, the Kenyan army looted shops, broke open safes, and emptied tills. The looting was captured on closed-circuit television cameras and reported by business owners after they returned to the mall and found their shops ransacked and stock missing. A public inquiry into the disastrously ineffective security response was promised but never delivered. Somehow, Kenya’s interior minister managed to cling to his job for another 15 months. The army chief retired this spring, with full honors. Westgate reopened in July, nearly 22 months after the attack. Kenyan soldiers are still in Somalia, but they are now part of the multinational African Union force that protects the Somali government and fights al-Shabab, which still controls some parts of the countryside.

    In April of this year, al-Shabab gunmen launched an attack in Garissa, in Kenya’s northeast, that was strikingly similar to Westgate. Four armed men broke into a university campus and rounded up students in a dormitory. After letting the Muslims go, they executed the others. One hundred and forty-eight people died that day, almost all of them young students. It was al-Shabab’s deadliest ever attack. For Kenya, Westgate was just the beginning.

    Some of those caught up taking positions as dead bodies lay beside
    Some of those caught up taking positions as dead bodies lay beside

    The Commission of Inquiry promised by President Uhuru Kenyatta in the days following the attack has failed to materialize. A report on the attack tabled by a Joint Parliamentary Committee was rejected by the National Assembly. The KDF was reported to have prepared a report on its actions during the siege but this is yet to be published.

    With the truth On What really transpired in the mall and questions hanging as to whether the terrorists were really killed, what have we learnt as a country to prevent any of such attacks, how equipped are the officers. The victims both surviving needed more than just financial compensation but the entire truth which will remain a mystery from the trend of events. Key questions that will not leave minds soon; Could the attack have been prevented? Why did they have to collapse the roof? What happened to the terrorists? Did they have a plan? When were the terrorists defeated? Could more people have been saved?

  • Jacob Juma’s Murder Probe Takes Another Twist

    Jacob Juma’s Murder Probe Takes Another Twist

    The killing of Businessman turned anti-corruption crusader, Jacob Juma is one that continue to cause more questions as intrigues continue to pile, many questions with no tangible forthcoming answers.

    Jacob who was according to police reports gunned down by hitmen while headed home in May 5, is yet to get off the public’s eye who’ve waited with baited breath to know what exactly happened.

    However, the wait could take much longer just like the rest of historical prominent assassinations. Detectives from the Investigations Department has thrown in the towel saying their investigations had hit a  dead end writing to the Office of Public Prosecution to ignite a public inquest into Jacob’s murder in a bid to unravel the mysteries.

    The DPP has since refered back the files to DCI Muhoro to do more investigations turning down the tribunal request they had made. Tobiko has instructed the detectives to do more including questioning witnesses not included in the submitted list.

    Sirisia MP John Walukhe whom Juma’s relatives pointed fingers at for having bad blood with the slain has also been questioned amongst others like Jimmy Wanjigi, Ahmednasir and others in connection with the murder.

    Jacob Juma is believed to have been fell by the State’s owned hitsquad and Opposition leaders have in several occasions reiterated that Juma was killed for his position in exposing corruption within Jubilee and especially the Eurobond saga.

    Knowing the history of this country, it will take a complete system overhaul for the truth on what exactly happened and who killed Juma the rest are just sideshows to buy time.  Extrajudicial killings has been on the rise in recent times a worrying trend.

  • Langata Women Prison Crowning Lady Who Stabbed To Death Her Boyfriend 22 Times a PR Sacrilege

    Langata Women Prison Crowning Lady Who Stabbed To Death Her Boyfriend 22 Times a PR Sacrilege

    Ruth Kamande
    Ruth Kamande

    Tulirogwa na nini, a common phrase amongst Kenyans on the unending craziness that we have to deal with on daily basis. Ruth Kamande, a woman who is accused of killing her boyfriend last year when she stabbed him 22 times was crowned the fairest of the inmates at Lang’ata Women’s Prison.

    Ruth, who is facing murder charges for stabbing Farid Ahmed in Buruburu Estate due to a love triangle, beat 19 other contestants to win the annual Miss Langata beauty pageant in a fierce competition. While I agree that rehabilitation of inmates is recommendable, I feel awarding such class criminals is far beyond rehabilitation but more of glorifying murdered and dangerous offenders.

    IMG_20160901_142413

    The event which was grassed by Chapati Forum, an organisation, affiliated to Dennis Itumbi, digital strategist to the government is going to remain as a disastrous PR move. If anything, there should be no crowning which is easily read as endorsement and celebration of these heinous crimes. As part of embracing them in the society, the peasant should be held without crowning.

    IMG_20160901_142331

    Rehabilitation should be limited to family visits, training, counselling workshops. What’s the pride in crowning a narcissistic psychopath, how does this help her and the message being sent out to potential criminals? The crowning amounts to an insult to the victim’s family.

  • Extrajudicial Killings Continues, CID Officers Follows To The Hospital A Man They Thought To Have Killed Pumps 17 Bullets To Him In Mwingi

    Extrajudicial Killings Continues, CID Officers Follows To The Hospital A Man They Thought To Have Killed Pumps 17 Bullets To Him In Mwingi

    The slain Ngandi Malia Musyemi
    The slain Ngandi Malia Musyemi

    Just when you thought extrajudicial killings by the police would cease with the brutal murder of lawyer Willie Kimani who was killed alongside his client and the taxi driver, more terror continue to be unleashed by the same force.

    A 27-year-old deceased man identified as Ngandi Malia Musyemi was being treated of gunshot wounds sustained earlier on Wednesday night at around 8 pm when the officers reportedly followed him to the hospital and finished him off at 3 am.

    Two police officers have since been arrested in this respect. One of the officers is reported to have laid wait outside as his colleague accomplished the mission, sending panic at the hospital where other patients were admitted.

    “The deceased had earlier recounted to police how he was hijacked at Majengo area in Kitui, blindfolded and taken to a thicket at Sosoma junction where he was shot in the head and left ribs,” a senior police officer said of the incident that occurred off the Mwingi-Garissa Highway.

    An investigation has since shown that it is the two police officers who had hijacked him earlier and shot him, leaving him in a critical condition before he was assisted to hospital by passers-by, according to police.

    “He is accused of being a robber and was under investigation for some murder cases, including a police officer’s child,” a detective said, but could not confirm if the child belonged to any of the two officers arrested or if there was any conspiracy to have the suspect killed.

    Ngandi Musyemi, 26, was admitted to the facility on Wednesday with bullet injuries after he was carjacked in Majengo, Kitui town at 8.30am while in the company of a female friend.

    The attackers claimed they were police officers and forced him into their white car.

    “He was blindfolded and forced to sleep facing down, driven to Ukasi area where they shot him several times,” Musyemi’s sister said.

    “They then left thinking that he was dead, only for him to struggle to the main highway and call for help from good Samaritans who took him to Ukasi health centre. From there, the police took him to Mwingi general hospital,” she added.

    She said the family is yet to understand why his brother was not guarded by police, despite the fact that he was a patient nursing gunshot wounds.

    Musyemi – a second-hand shoes dealer in Kitui – was hospitalised after he was shot at the back of the head and at the left cheek, as well as the left ribs.

    The sister said the assailants were permitted to enter the hospital at 8pm, which is past the authorised visiting hours.

    “They hid in the hospital until 3am when they completed their mission,” she said.

    “Though he was in great pain he was conscious since he was talking,” Musyimi’s sister said.

    Meanwhile, Musyimi’s sister Sharlyne Malia who witnessed his brother being shot dead in his hospital bed has claimed that the men who killed her brother are after her.

    On Saturday morning, she slithered out of a family meeting at Kathiani village in Kitui West, after claiming that two men came looking for her.

    Mr Musyimi’s family claims he is a victim of extrajudicial killings.

    “My brother was picked up by police from his house and was first taken to Kitui Police Station. Later he was brutally killed. They must tell us why they killed him,” said Nicholas Mukando.

    The officers thought to have killed Musyimi and in realising he wasn’t dead, followed him to the hospital where they pumped 17 bullets to his body allt these in the full glare of the sister. Being a crictical witness, the sister need to be put on witness protection immediately.

    Extrajudicial Killings have heightened in recent times and it’s high time theDCI Muhoro who’s heading the killer unit to take responsibility and resign since he’s unable to stop the senseless killings. The killing of this gentleman must cost as much concerns as that of Willie and rest of police brutality. There need to be a stop into this madness.

  • Revealed: Increased Drug Trafficking From Kenya Core Reason President Obama Is Sending John Kerry For Talks With Uhuru

    Revealed: Increased Drug Trafficking From Kenya Core Reason President Obama Is Sending John Kerry For Talks With Uhuru

    Between 21-22nd of Aug, the US Secretary of States John Kerry will lead a delegation for a diplomatic visit to Kenya. Amongst the topics lined up for the US Secretary of States John Kerry is to pile pressure on Kenyan authorities to undertake serious electoral reforms, which are key to future stability. Diplomatic sources said the move by Mr Kerry to visit Kenya is part of efforts to push for the major shift in the way things are done locally.

    Whitehouse feels major agreements reached with Statehouse last July when President Barack Obama visited are yet to be implemented. The agreements were key in the war on drug trafficking and corruption. “There is concern that the agreements are yet to be executed by Kenyan authorities hence his coming. He will also raise other issues,” said an informed source.

    According to Statehouse in Nairobi, Matters expected to be discussed include security, regional and international relations and especially, the recent upheaval in our northern neighbour South Sudan as well as Somalia.

    However, impeccable sources privy to this visit tell Kenya Insights that Kerry’s visit has a lot more to do with the war on drugs, sources said the US government is concerned that there’s an increased cases of the drugs seized in America passing through Kenya.

    Numerous reports, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of 2011, have cited Mombasa as a region that is increasingly being used as a transit hub for narcotics on the global circuit. In September 2011, the International Peace Institute reported that profits from the illicit drug trade had infiltrated Kenyan politics, linking officials to international cocaine and heroin smuggling rings.

    On August 28, 2014, Uhuru supervised the destruction of Iranian-flagged Mv Bushehr which was impounded with 377kg of heroin worth Sh1.3 billion. The suspects arrested on board, all foreigners, were denied bail and are still on trial in Mombasa. The vessel was impounded by Kenya’s naval forces with the assistance of foreign navies off the coast of Lamu and dragged to Mombasa mid-2013.

    One year later, on August 14, 2015, the military also blew up a Singaporean-registered luxury yacht off the Mombasa coast, which police said was found stuffed with narcotics. Anti-narcotics detectives estimated the heroin seized on the yacht, Mv Baby Iris, to be worth Sh20 million. Initially, police in Mombasa claimed the vessel, whose Seychellois captain Clement Serge Bristol is among suspects on trial, ferried tourists between Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Madagascar.

    Police also named claimed the yacht’s British owner had been summoned from London, but it is not clear if he was ever interrogated. The largest drug haul to be made in Kenya’s history involved the capture in 2004 of cocaine worth Sh5.3 billion in Malindi. The seizure became a matter of legendary police missteps that led to the acquittal of most suspects, a murder of police officers involved in the case and the alleged disappearance of part of the haul during its “destruction”.

    In October 2013, a Lithuanian national, Kudrika Gytis and a Kenyan national, Anna Muthoni, were arrested at Wananchi Hotel in Ganjoni area with heroin worth Sh49 million after their partner, Reikumas Ricards, their alleged accomplice, was found death in his hotel room, apparently from a drug overdose.

    Tom Wolf, the British Aristocrat, is the latest suspect be swallowed in the growing syndicate. A ship carrying over an estimated Sh2B worth of Cocaine was impounded at the Mombasa Ports last month and was linked to Tom’s Company.

    The Ship Mysteriously disappeared, and the whereabouts of the confiscated drugs are unknown. Tom together along other suspects were arrested and charged with drug trafficking. The suspects have been held behind bars.

    In a sharp twist, Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) a bank associated with Kenyatta’s family has given a surety of up Sh.140M as bond for the release of Tom Wolf. The move by CBA has attracted sharp criticism from Uhuru’s critics saying he’s protecting the drugs trafficking syndicate. This was evident in the Trending Topic #CocaineBankCBA on Twitter for a good part of Friday morning.

  • Something That Happened In The Past Days And Government Wanted To Keep It A Secret, Paralyzed Key State Operations

    Something That Happened In The Past Days And Government Wanted To Keep It A Secret, Paralyzed Key State Operations

    anonymous

    What you’re about to read is what the Government of Kenya didn’t want you to know. The Kenyan Government IT department has been breaking the sweat in past few days following a massive hacking operation by the anonymous crew and group of hacktivists who target organisations or governments they deem to be violating human rights.

    Anonymous Group which runs internationally and famed for bringing down the most of rigid government’s IT systems, reigned terror on Kenya’s government even though this won’t be the first time, the previous attack saw KDF, OP websites targeted and brought down last year.

    In the past 4-6 days, the key government of Kenya websites were targeted by the hacking group and brought down. The Government’s IT department opted to keep it low with instructions to the blogger’s team and operatives to keep it secret away from a public’s eye as a superiority measure as they fought around the clock to regain control of the websites from the hackers who had launched the attack as a form of protest to the government.

    While the silence game ensued and background battle with hackers to regain control intensified, major government operations that rely heavily on online executions were frozen from KRA to Nexus.

    Screenshots of some of the State’s websites hacked.

    hacked hacked1 hacked2 hacked3 hacked4 hacked5

    Kenya Insights has been in contact with the anonymous global village who affirms to us the operation was major to protest the government of Kenya’s incompetence, abandoning the four Kenyans held illegally by the government of Sudan and rampant corruption in the system.

    The Kenyan IT team put up a good fight going as far us hacking into the dark chat rooms by the hackers in a fierce bid to regain control of the states sites. We’ve informed a group of 15 hackers stationed and behind a shadow of Nexus launched the retaliatory fight. But according to the leader of anonymous talking to Kenya Insights, he says the Kenyan team are amateurs who came up with the childish armoury in regaining back the held sites.

    Screenshot_2016-08-16-20-04-39-1 Screenshot_2016-08-16-20-04-47-1 Screenshot_2016-08-16-20-05-16-1

    ” We’re going to let them breathe for now but this is just a warning shot, we will be back very soon and this time it will be bigger than ever. The government must change its ways or we’re going to paralyse online operations of the state.” Says the leader of Kenya’s Anonymous Hackers talking to Kenya Insights.

    We’re informed the next in target is the government of South Sudan, who by far has been served with the warning note. South Sudan is currently holding in jail four Kenyans without any apparent justification crime in what the anonymous say is an illegality. As a protest to the illegal detention, Anonymous has promised to take over and down the entire South Sudan IT system as a bid to have the detained Kenyans released.

  • Hold On, Cheryl Kitonga Is Not Dead Just Yet

    Hold On, Cheryl Kitonga Is Not Dead Just Yet

    Social Media which one of Kenya’s top killer diseases after Malaria and AIDS has once again taken one person down and this time none other than Cheryl Kitonga a once less known last who made headlines during the murder of Businessman Jacob Juma for being the last he was last seen with before being gunned down.

    I’m Monday night, social media was awash with unconfirmed news that the lady has been found murdered at her home. Intel reaching Kenya Insights from the CID sources indicates that these are wild rumours and police not able to confirm.

    Cheryl stays in South B and none of the relatives neither friends from the area have come out to confirm this. So far we can firmly tell you to treat this as a rumour and that the lady is still alive.

    Rumours of Cheryl being murdered coming at a time when ODPP is structuring a tribunal to look into the unresolved murder of Jacob Juma who was fell down by unknown gunmen suspected to be state operatives according to many contributors on the matter allegations denied by the government.

    Keep it Kenya Insights for more developments in this story.

  • Grand Conspiracy of Sh 600M Cocaine Haul, Uhuru, Nationwide Power Outage And The Kenya-Uganda Sugar Cartel

    Grand Conspiracy of Sh 600M Cocaine Haul, Uhuru, Nationwide Power Outage And The Kenya-Uganda Sugar Cartel

    Earlier last year, President Uhuru cut a bilateral deal with Uganda that would see Kenya import sugar from the neighbouring country. His decision was met with fierce criticism from the opposition leader Raila Odinga and leaders from the sugarcane farming region of Western Kenya. The explanation was an importation deal with Uganda would kill the local trade by encouraging sugar smuggling from Brazil.

    Uganda barely produces enough sugar to sustain it’s demand in their country and primarily imports from Brazil which is famed for making downgrade sweetener. International anti-narcotics authorities have also marked the route as a leeway for drugs trafficking and Mombasa Port being a mini rigid port facilitating drug trafficking in the region.

    The opposition also accused the president of giving the sugar deal an okay in exchange negotiated a deal for his family’s company Brookside to be exporting dairy products to Uganda. Brookside is currently the biggest dairy enterprise not only in Kenya but the whole region.

    It didn’t come as a surprise when Jack Alexander Wolf a British citizen was arrested last week together with two Kenyans in connection with the impounding of cocaine at the Port of Mombasa valued at Sh.600M.

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    Jack-Alexander-Marrian when he appeared before the court to answer on drug trafficking charges
    Jack Alexander Marrian when he appeared before the court to answer on drug trafficking charges

    According to information gathered by Kenya Insights, the three suspects are linked to a drug smuggling cartel from South America and in particular Brazil where the shipment originated from. They were trailed by foreign and local anti-narcotics authorities for months. The cocaine was in a consignment of sugar destined for Uganda from Venezuela when it was seized. The ship carrying the consignment was allowed to leave Mombasa because the drugs were seized after the consignment had been offloaded.

    Kenya Insights also learn from reports that the drug haul was flown to Nairobi last week on Sunday and kept at an undisclosed location in Nairobi. This a Deja Vu of the 2004 Kenyan Police seizes of a cocaine consignment worth Ksh. 6.4B the biggest shipment to have ever been nabbed in East Africa. Years down the line, no one has been held responsible.

    March 25, 2011, 98 packets of cocaine weighing two kgs each with a street value of Ksh 500 million were netted in Shanzu area in Mombasa. The six suspects, 3 Kenyans, 2 Iranians, and 1 Pakistani national were charged the same day for alleged drug trafficking. The consignment which initially weighed 196 kg came to weigh 102 kg three days later when the suspects reappeared in court. The mysterious disappearance of the 94 kilogrammes of heroin is yet to be resolved. In short, history can pre-empt the outcome of the drugs flown to Nairobi last week, and it will be a twirl.

    Back to the case at hand, Jack Marian the Briton arrested in line with the Sh.600M Cocaine haul is a Scottish aristocrats’ son. He’s also head of the East Africa operations at International trading giant ED&F Sugar, and he’s also the son of Lady Emma Clare Clare Campbell of Cowdar, whose family own a popular estate in the Highland of Scotland, mentioned in the Shakespeare’s Macbeth. His mother Lady Campbell, 58, is the daughter of the late Hugh John Vaughan Campbell, the Sixth Earl Cawdor

    Marian and his company are part of the Kenya-Uganda Sugar cartel. According to intelligence gathered by Kenya Insights, the cocaine in question was transported in containers which from outside appeared to carry sugar. The shipment we pick was due to be received by Mshale Commodities, coincidentally, Mr Marrian happens to serve as the company’s MD.

    Mr Marrian has lived most of his life in Kenya and with his family’s royal stature made friends with powerful families in the land. He had since been released on bond, thanks to his connections and the loose ends in the narcotics laws and most importantly the corrupt judicial systems and also the corrupt police which according to Transparency International is a facilitating factor in drug trafficking.

    It’s worth to note that the drugs were seized by US drug enforcement administration officials. The seizure is rare one in Kenya given the corrupt nature of the police who are easily compromised with bribes to let go. Another Kenyan, Roy Francis Mwanthi was arrested alongside Marrian and has also since denied the charges.

    Marrian went to Pembroke School according to intel gathered by Kenya Insights lives in Karen, a Nairobi leafy suburb, Springs Valley. Isn’t is a rare case that the suspect Mr Mirrian was arrested then released the consignment flown or disappeared as reported the later he was arrested again charged, obviously without evidence. Perhaps a ploy to dupe public that investigations ongoing while in real sense none would be in place.

    A Kenyan detective checks a packet of cocaine on display as an exhibit before a court session in Kenya's capital Nairobi October 13, 2005. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
    A Kenyan detective checks a packet of cocaine on display as an exhibit before a court session in Nairobi October 13, 2005. 

    On Saturday morning from 5.15am, Kenya woke up to a national power outage in what KPLC attributes to a ‘technical hitch’. Coincidentally, the general outage also rocked Uganda where a national power blackout went simultaneously with Kenya’s. According to Umeme Limited, the country’s power supplier, the blackout was due to a fault at the Owen Fall Dam in Jinja. It’s on an unusual day that you get to witness such a scenario where two countries go into darkness. Keeping in mind the Sugar link in mind a conspiracy of correlation in the cases becomes justifiable.

    Talking of coincidences, an international airport as JKIA was also in darkness for two whole hours with all operations in this window period being in shadow, according to explanations from the Kenya Airports Authorities, their backup generators which are programmed to go on automatically on power cut as an alternative mysteriously failed to function and had to be rectified manually.

    The generators are supposed and often put in check and up to the task to go on in the case of a power outage it came as a surprise that on this particular day it couldn’t function for two hours. The window period which meant anything was coming in and outside the airport happened undetected is a severe security issue that should and must worry conscious citizens. Whether the power outage at the airport was orchestrated as it may seem or not is a matter of concern that biggest airport could go for two hours without electricity alternative and that people must take responsibilities.

    Speaking of responsibilities, Retired Major General Karangi the new Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) head is also not new to controversies, he’s just coming from heading KDF who according to a UN and broadly publicised reports are involved in a sugar-smuggling racket worth as much as $400 million a year. Much of this two-way trade—charcoal going out and sugar coming in—takes place through Kismayo’s sickle-shaped harbour in southern Somalia. The port was captured from al-Shabab in 2012 by Kenyan troops operating under the African Union Mission in Somalia.

    Kenya Airports Authority(KPA) new MD Catherine Mturi-Wairi stationed in Mombasa where the drugs were netted and also sits on the Sidian Bank formerly K-Rep Bank Board of Directors becomes a person of interest in the investigations. Sidian Bank belongs to Businessman Chris Kirubi. Catherine’s appointment was marred with controversies with a suspicious quarter pushing for her appointment, but that’s a story for another day. How can she possibly curb the drugs trafficking menace in the port? Can she explain where the haul is?

    Kenya Airports Authority(KPA) new MD Catherine Mturi-Wairi
    Kenya Airports Authority(KPA) new MD Catherine Mturi-Wairi

    According to finer details gathered by Kenya Insights, the netted drug worth is way more that the Sh.600M as reported in the mainstream and could be worth billions. Power cut off both in Kenya and Uganda could it be that someone orchestrated this and took advantage of the window period to fly in and out drugs or whatsoever it is? Nobody can give an answer since nothing can be trapped.

    Everything that happened at JKIA between 5.15am and 7.15am can’t be traced, nothing captured on the radar, and it was a total power blackout from a main power supply and the backup generators. What a coincidence that power also went off in Uganda and that the drug net has the sugar trade players caught up. More questions you ask, more conclusive you arrive at a perception.

    That there was a power outage and backup generators couldn’t go on automatically as programmed for two straight hours is a disturbing national security threat at a time when Kenya stands at an all time terror alert. Elsewhere, this is the second time in a row that the national power cut is happening no one taken responsibilities and nothing happens beyond press releases. Kenya is headed to 2017 elections, we wouldn’t want a technical hitch or a monkey explanation cutting off power since we’re using BVR system meaning electricity must be available for smooth transmission or abracadabra in results might be destined.

    Keep it Kenya Insights as we dig deeper into this and other more frauds and suspicious deals across the country and continent. If you have a tip or any lead feel free to email me the investigations editor at ([email protected])

  • VIDEO: Rogue Embakassi Cops Reign Terror On Club Revellers After Beating By KDF Soldiers

    VIDEO: Rogue Embakassi Cops Reign Terror On Club Revellers After Beating By KDF Soldiers

    images

    A video doing rounds on the Internet showing police officers drawn from the Embakasi Camp reigning terror on revellers who had taken refuge in the washrooms has sparked anger and investigations.

    The CCTV footage shows the incident happened on a Friday, 29th July 2016. According to information available, there was a fight between the police officers with KDF soldiers from the neighbouring Embakasi barracks. The rival teams were having drinks in the club before war broke out and the soldiers overpowered them with the serious beating.

    The unarmed police officers then rushed to their stations and came back armed with the soldiers whom by then had sensed danger and drove off from the club. On realising the soldiers had left, the angered officers turned their fire on innocent patrons who were by now scared on the gunshot sounds took cover in the washrooms.

    The video shows officers dragging and assaulting the helpless and unarmed revellers. ODPP.IPOA and the Police Service themselves have taken up the matter, and officers involved faced with possible disciplinary actions.

    The inter-forces rivalry between the police and military isn’t new whereby the soldiers often see the cops as inferior to them. Police reforms seemingly have done less to streamline the officers who just act above limits. What did the revellers do to warrant all these? Hopefully, authorities involved strike hard on the menaces.

  • Six Storey Building Collapses In Kariobangi South Another Case City Hall Impunity

    Six Storey Building Collapses In Kariobangi South Another Case City Hall Impunity

    The collapsed building in Kariobangi South Estate
    The collapsed building in Kariobangi South Estate

    Kenya Insights has been highlighting on the incompetent City Hall officers who conspire with rogue landlords in approving the substandard buildings. This is facilitated by corrupt officials in the County Government’s planning department headed by Khaemba.

    The building from our contact in the ground was erected on a swampy ground which shouldn’t be the case if the County officers did their job well to ensure approval of buildings on safe grounds. Occupants of the premise luckily had vacated the building on sensing danger arising from huge cracks on the wall. It was set to collapse the residents say.

    Steve the swindler landlord has since gone underground switched off his phones as irate tenants and locals bay for his blood. Luckily, no casualty has been reported since the building had been evacuated

  • The 30 Police Armoured Vehicles Bought From China That Uhuru Kenyatta Launched Broke Down The First Day

    The 30 Police Armoured Vehicles Bought From China That Uhuru Kenyatta Launched Broke Down The First Day

    Months after they were acquired, there has been not a single mission of successful deployment of the VN-4s to report. Key components, including shock absorbers and air conditioning, don’t work. Kenyan officers have misgivings about them; they do not even know how to operate them properly, let alone maintain them. Almost all have been parked since they were commissioned

    They were supposed to be the machines that made the difference in the war against terror in the Kenyan story; the ones to turn cops into heroes, and the bad guys into, well, not heroes. But the chronicle of the 30 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) purchased by the Kenya government, in a shroud of secrecy, from China is one that speaks of wanton waste and abundant ineptitude.

    At the commissioning of the APCs in February this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta was evidently excited. He extolled the “important milestone” that his administration had attained, in its mission to modernisation the police service. It was, he said, one thing his government had done differently from its predecessors in decades, which would give the cops that much-needed boost in the fight against terrorism, banditry and other forms of crime.

    The cost of the APCs was never publically disclosed – no police or military purchase ever is – but they are believed to cost less than US-manufactured ones, which go for close to $1.2 million (Sh120 million) per unit. Available information indicates that Kenya was the second country to acquire the VN-4 APCs, manufactured by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) Group.

    The only other country known to have the same hardware is the Venezuelan National Guard, under the repressive regime of President Nicolás Maduro. The vehicle’s armour is welded shut and primarily provides protection from small arms fire and splinters from explosives. According to armyrecognition.com, the VN-4 is fitted with an open-roof, and a small turret mounted at the front top hull, armed with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun. Three smoke grenade dischargers are mounted on each side of the turret. It has a top speed of 115 km/h and efficient range of 700 kilometres.

    The Nairobi Law Monthly’s investigations have returned a damning verdict, which points to a mega scandal within the Presidency, specifically the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government – the same ministry has previously been accused of appropriating billions of shillings in the space of days in inexplicable expenses; the journalist who reported the story was later arrested for ‘questioning’, and was only released after a public outcry

    By the time the APCs landed at the port of Mombasa from China, they had not been tested locally; neither had Kenyan police officers, who were to be the primary users, undergone any form of training on how to use or maintain them.

    Don’t miss out to get your copy of the August release of Nairobi Law Monthly when they hit the streets the first week of August and get the finer details of what would be one of the biggest scandals to ever hit Jubilee government after Eurobond and NYS scandal.

  • Kenya bows to #BringKenyansBack pressure, starts evacuating citizens trapped in South Sudan

    Kenya bows to #BringKenyansBack pressure, starts evacuating citizens trapped in South Sudan

    Nairobi, 16th July 2016 – Kenya has started evacuating her nationals from South Sudan following a surge in insecurity and violence in the world’s newest nation.

    The announcement was made by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs PS, Monica Juma.

    Kenya’s evacuation begun on Friday with one 1 plane and at least 100 people making it home. Two more flights are expected to head to Kenya with more people.

    There has been growing anger towards the Kenyan Government from all corners for taking too long to act.

    No non-essential travel to South Sudan

    Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has also warned Kenyans against travelling to South Sudan.

    CCTV Africa has reported that at least 2 Kenyans have been killed in the violence.

    Sudan and Uganda have been evacuating their nationals since Wednesday amidst fears that fighting may intensify between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar.

    The recent security deterioration in South Sudan has been occasioned a conflict between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar last week July 8. At least 300 people, mainly soldiers have been killed in the latest spate of violence.

  • What Next After the Hashtags and Demos, We Must Appease the Spirits Of The Murdered

    What Next After the Hashtags and Demos, We Must Appease the Spirits Of The Murdered

    Protestors in Nairobi, chanting anti judicial killings slogans following murder of lawyer Willie Kimani
    Protestors in Nairobi, chanting anti judicial killings slogans following murder of lawyer Willie Kimani

    Lawyer Willie Kimani together with his client Josephat Mwedwa and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were laid to rest eventually on Saturday. Hundreds of mourners gathered to give the three heroic send off in their rural homes.

    Leaders from different divisions; LSK, political, administration and civil society all had one common message, bring to an end extra judicial killings which claimed the lives of the three. The brutal murder of Willie and his company not only grabbed headlines of local media outlets but international spaces.

    From Civil unions to international media terminals, the gory news caught the world in consternation even as US extrajudicial killings maimed the world. In a peculiarity mannerism, Kenyans have a tendency of forgetting things as soon as they relegate from the trending topics list.

    Great scholars say insanity is the art of doing the same thing over and over and expecting to see a change. The cycle has been entirely predictable, extrajudicial executions by police are committed, in this case, a prominent case as the rest get shoved off, a public outrage sparked, the topic trends on all the key social and mainstream media platforms.

    Anti Extra Judicial killings Protestors in Nairobi streets. (Photo: Getty)
    Anti Extra Judicial killings Protestors in Nairobi streets. (Photo: Getty)

    Leaders drawn from across the board come out to reprobate the heinous acts, victims of brutality buried, and the hype goes with it as well. Life gets back to normal as soon as the graves are covered.

    Loudmouthed MP, Moses Kuria knowing the distinctiveness of Kenyans, is on account calling for the assassination of CORD leader Raila. He went further to say, Raila’s supporters would riot for few weeks, the police would shoot dead a good number in the name of maintaining peace and before we know it, life would be back to normal.

    Kuria wasn’t wrong, Kenyans have a slight recollection, we have knee-jerk reactions and forget at light speed. Now that Willie has been buried, and the calls for the stop to extrajudicial killings rented the air, where do we go next. From my point of view, we have at disposal several arbitrations to curb this menace that has steadily been robbing the country the best of its brains.

    Western Financiers

    The police force largely depends on foreign aid in financing their operations, US, UK, Sweden, France just to mention a few are some of the key financiers of the now killer branded force. The foreign powers gratify themselves in training, equipping and financing the force at large.

    Unless the extra-judicial killings are part of their maiming agenda, the financing countries must use their powers at stake to push for the alignment of the police. Use veto powers to quash the lethal force to submission. I leave it at a comfortable point that UK, US, France and the rest have the rest to cut off, review or continue facilitating a clearly brutalising force. Their stand will and won’t be overlooked given the stakes they hold.

    Police reforms

    The new constitution came with the Independence Police Oversight Authority with the sole focus on streamlining the force and furnishing its face. However, the fruits are yet to materialise. Civil societies, political and interested party leaders must bury their faces in this course to ensure the transformation of the police from its perceived image to an acceptable one. Ethics, adherence to core values and respect for natural laws should be guiding lines in this agenda.

    Lawyers carry the casket bering the body of slain colleague Willie Kimani during his funeral service
    Lawyers carry the casket bearing the body of slain colleague Willie Kimani during his funeral service

    A reformed police force, streamlined with discipline will go a long way in dealing with extrajudicial killings. According to reports, a reward of as little as Sh.2,000 an equivalent of $20 is given to officers who kill criminals. The unpropitious aspect here is, you’re either a perceived or real criminal. A disciplined, well-paid officer, will pause for a moment before pulling the trigger for a mere Sh.2,000.

    Unfortunately, in Kenya, you stand a higher chance of raising your rank in the force given the number of criminals real or perceived that you’ve fallen. This lethal loophole is a motivational factor for rogue officers to pull the trigger continuously with the final thought of rising the tube.

    Reforms should extend to the dismissal of all top security organs from Inspector General of the police, CID director all the way down in cleansing the police force. Boinnet, Muhoro and company, who have been overseeing the recent infinite illegal killings.

    Disbanding the Killer unit

    Brand Fire lawyer, Abdulahi Ahmednassir, recently pricked the inflated balloon exposing a relatively obvious fact that DCI’s led unit harbours the killer unit.

    Dreaded Serious crimes prevention unit, flying squad under the unsmiling DCI Ndegwa Muhoro should have deeper scrutiny. Most illegal killings have been attributed to these units. Lawyers, leaders and all relevant bodies must lock in their focus in this space to ensure the ‘promotion to glory’ elements are disbanded as a measure in killing the unit and eventually the extra-judicial killings. Failure to this, the noises will reign and so will the unit, insanity.

    Executive stand

    When the prominent businessman Jacob was earlier in the year assassinated in what many points at the executives’ wing involvement and most recently, Willie’s murder, one thing has been common, the deafening silence from the executive.

    Their silence can easily be read as a stamping signal to the extra-judicial killings. President Uhuru and Jubilee government, swore an oath to protect, uphold the constitution of Kenya and above all ensure the safety of all citizens.

    DCI Muhoro, Head of Flying Squad John Kariuki when they appeared before the court on Tuesday
    DCI Muhoro, Head of Flying Squad John Kariuki when they appeared before the court

    Throughout the fatal incidences, their voices are hardly audible, silence throwing many into the speculative mode. The leaders must come out of their shells to condemn these killings and Kenyans to take them into action. As top most organs in the hierarchy, they must be responsible and pull the relevant strings in dealing with this menace, and silence will only be read as an endorsement.

    Tribunal Inquiries

    Every time, a prominent execution takes place a tribunal is formed with negative results to show at the end. Devotion must be shown, and past enquiries reports should be made public as research basis and historical files preservation.

    A general Tribune to discuss the bigger problem, extra-judicial killings, let’s look into the causes and come up with perfect solutions out, name and shame the rogue elements in the state involved in this.

    As Kenyans head to the next general elections, all danger pausing aspects must be dealt with, and not a single angle left hanging given possible repercussions.

    To appease the spirits of our brothers and sisters in history from JM, Mboya, Ouko, Wagalla to the Mavoko three and everyone else, who’ve been brutally murdered by hit squads, we must not relent on justice course. It must not be business as usual and wait for the poachers to pounce on their next catch for us to wake from the repose.

  • Why Detained Killer Officers Must Be Given Maximum Protection.

    Why Detained Killer Officers Must Be Given Maximum Protection.

    DCI Muhoro, Head of Flying Squad John Kariuki when they appeared before the court on Tuesday
    DCI Muhoro, Head of Flying Squad John Kariuki when they appeared before the court on Tuesday

    The murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri by suspected police officers has in the past days clutched not only local headlines but also international attention. Human rights bodies led by the supreme UN have come out in full gear to condemn the brutal murder of the three.

    In a quick progress, four officers suspected to have been behind the killings have been held behind bars for days now as investigations continue. The officers suspected of carrying out the killings are Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Chebulet, Leonard Maina Mwangi and Silvia Wanjiku.

    According to autopsy results, the victims were painfully tortured before being killed. Uniformly, they were hit with blunt objects with the most impact to their heads and chest. According to the report, lawyer Willie’s testicles were crushed, showing extreme pain they endured in their last moments.

    Traditionally, such high-profile executions are expected of the elite unit of police like the flying squad. However, the killing of the three is being blamed on the perceived inferior Administration Police, which brings to focus a new face of the AP. The Parliamentary Security Committee is envisioning disbanding the unit and merging it with the Kenya Police following constant complaints on their rogue inclinations.

    When the news of Fredrick Leliman’s arrest reached Mlolongo residents, they went in a celebratory mood. According to a resident talking to me on anonymity conditions, the officer known by the nickname Maasai, is a dreaded figure in the locality. The officer, according to my source, is known for ruthless eliminations. “He is ruthless and fears no one, and he kills at will. He has killed so many young men here, and nobody dares to raise a voice. If you try, he comes for you.”

    Another credible source tells me the dreaded officer in the month of June alone has executed over 25 young men in Mlolongo area where he is stationed. Most of these men are either suspected criminals or in some cases feigned. A good number of complaints about him are being processed according to my source at IPOA.

    Leliman’s latest victim is a woman currently nursing gunshot wounds at Kenyatta National Hospital. She, in a company of another woman who unfortunately succumbed, were passersby and witnessed an execution. The trigger happy Maasai pulled the trigger on the women.
    The three suspects operate as a team, according to reports, with their female counterpart Silvia Wanjiku being their designated driver in any of their operations. They are stationed in the same camp.

    The suspected officers; Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Chebulet, Leonard Maina Mwangi and Silvia Wanjiku appeared at the Milimani Law courts on Monday
    The suspected officers; Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Chebulet, Leonard Maina Mwangi and Silvia Wanjiku appeared at the Milimani Law courts on Monday

    If these signs are anything to go by, then the suspects hold crucial information on extra-judicial killings which would easily implicate their seniors. In most extra-judicial executions, a source who requested anonymity for security reasons, tells me that junior officers must get the green light from the top brass before carrying out a killing.

    With FBI now handling the case, the senior officers who issued out instructions for the executions and had dirt on their hands must be very scared. Being a devil’s market, to protect themselves and avoid falling into FBI net, one can get to the detained officers to silence them before they spill any bean.

    If the FBI investigations focus on the larger dragnet of extrajudicial killings, then the suspects are technically witnesses who are crucial to the investigations, and we know what happens to witnesses in this country.

    Extra-judicial killings have robbed the country of great people and if the lawyer’s case is going to be the breaking point then let it be, let mountains shake and the Eskimos sweat if that’s what it will take. Keep these officers safe, and they’re the asset to the prosecution which needs to do excellent investigations and unravel the mystery murders and let Willie Kimani and his compatriots be the last victims of rogue officers.

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  • US Government Threatens to Review Aid to Police Force, Flew in FBI Agents to Pursue Lawyers Murder

    US Government Threatens to Review Aid to Police Force, Flew in FBI Agents to Pursue Lawyers Murder

    Slain lawyer Willie Kimani
    Slain lawyer Willie Kimani

    On the 23rd of June, Human Rights advocate Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri disappeared after Kimani and Mwendwa had attended court in Mavoko over police brutality on Mwendwa, who had been shot by police earlier. Having received many threats on his life, Kimani braved to assist his client in the case.

    The last that it was heard, Kimani had dropped a ‘we’re in danger’ note to be delivered to his wife, whose number he had written on the note. A boda boda operator allegedly picked the note near Syokimau police container and reached the wife via phone. The boda boda operator and the note remains the only relevant links to the story

    Immediately the news hit the airwaves, and pressure started pilling coming from both the civil society and lawyers’ association in which Kimani was a member, the Flying Squad, which is widely suspected of engaging in extrajudicial killings, in the past took up the case. This move doesn’t seem to have gone well with the US envoy.

    FBI Agents
    FBI Agents

    The Flying Squad has been checking phone records and looking at footage from roadside surveillance cameras to identify where the three might have been taken. Human rights activists predicted that several officers, including the one connected to the first shooting, would soon be arrested.

    The International Justice Mission, the American legal aid group that employed Mr Kimani and had been representing Mr Mwenda in his court cases, is a well-connected Christian organisation. Within hours of the three men vanishing, the American Embassy in Nairobi received several messages from Washington asking diplomats to look into the case.

    US envoy, Godec unitedly with other foreign diplomats in Kenya piled pressure on the state to speed up investigations and that no loophole should be left untouched. In the meantime, FBI agents stationed in Kenya had hit the ground running and led the investigations and search for the missing three persons. An extra troop of detectives were sent from Washington to join their colleagues.

    DCI Muhoro when he appeared before the court on Tuesday
    DCI Muhoro when he appeared before the court on Tuesday

    The US government funds the police in millions of dollars of security assistance to Kenya each year, including training and equipment to police officers.

    One American official, talking to New York Times, said the Kenyan police clearly still had problems and that continued cooperation would be influenced by how much improvement the Kenyans make.

    An estimated sixty people were killed by the police in the month of June alone, with the numbers going up instead of reducing, according to several NGO reports. UN has also added their voice to the worrying rate of extra-judicial killings in the country. They’ve called upon the government to ensure perpetrators are brought to book.

    Noticeably, the West hasn’t been as vocal on extrajudicial killings until the latest event. According to sleuths in Statehouse speaking to Kenya Insights, the pressure is like never before. White House is stopping at nothing and committed to seeing those involved brought to books.

    The suspected officers; Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Chebulet, Leonard Maina Mwangi and Silvia Wanjiku appeared at the Milimani Law courts on Monday
    The suspected officers; Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Chebulet, Leonard Maina Mwangi and Silvia Wanjiku appeared at the Milimani Law courts on Monday

    As a consequence, the Director of Criminal Investigations amongst other senior officers were forced to appear before a Nairobi court to give sureties that other extra-judicial killers will be arrested. Many contributors have pointed fingers at Muhoro’s department as being responsible for such killings. The Law Society is calling for his resignation together with the Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet.

    The US government and Western community are so determined to pursue the course. FBI agents are leading the investigations and a comprehensive report tying Mavoko three killers and the killer unit expected to be available in a fortnight.

    A fourth suspect, an AP was arrested on Monday now making the number of officers arrested to be four. Prosecution applied for the speedy start to the case of the murdered and appointed four prosecutors to guide investigations.

    One wonders if the outstanding efforts to unravel the murderers of the three would have happened without Western intervention and more specifically the US. Ironically, when the DCI Muhoro appeared before the court on Tuesday to answer on the extra-judicial killings, he was with a purple ribbon. The ribbon is tagged on activists and lawyers to signify their support for the unlawful killings by the police.

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  • How Western Countries Including Israel Contribute to Kenya’s Killer Squad and Extra Judicial Killings

    How Western Countries Including Israel Contribute to Kenya’s Killer Squad and Extra Judicial Killings

    Visiting Israel PM Netanyahu inks his signature in Statehouse
    Visiting Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu inks his signature in Statehouse

    Anti-extra-judicial killings demonstrations were staged in most parts of the country on Monday following the gruesome murder of lawyer Willie Kimani alongside his client and a taxi driver. The three bodies were found floating at Oldonyo Sabuk river where they had been dumped.

    The three are suspected to have been kidnapped by police officers before being tortured and eventually brutally murdered. Willie was working with IJM and IPOA with the primary focus being on police brutality cases.

    The latest killings have rattled the country and incited the wrath of the majority of the civil society and law society together with leaders from across the board. The killings have been widely condemned, and calls for the disbandment of the killer squad by the state suspected to be behind extrajudicial killings have been renewed across the country.

    Kimani’s murder comes only two months after businessman Jacob Juma was fell by mysterious gunmen along Ngong Road. The state-owned hit squad has been widely blamed for the assassination. As of now, three administration police officers are being held over the killings of the lawyer while the Public Prosecution Office is expected to open a public tribunal that will look into the murder of Jacob Juma. Director of Criminal Investigations had written to the DPP to open public tribunal after their initial investigations failed to bear fruits. The piling cases of extrajudicial killings hence elicited maximum condemnation.

    The blood-stained Mercedes-Benz where Jacob Juma was shot dead. Police hit squad has been blamed for the murder
    The blood-stained Mercedes-Benz where Jacob Juma was shot dead. Police hit squad has been blamed for the murder

    According to reports, as of 2015, over 500 extra judicial killings had been executed by the police. A 12-member hit squad nicknamed the Kwekwe Squad drawn from the elite forces, is allegedly constituted with one aim; eliminating elements that the state deems as troublesome. Kwekwe squad was highly blamed for the killings targeting Mungiki members, and most human rights bodies put the number of killings in this operation at a triple digit.

    A good number of Muslim clerics and followers suspected of being linked to Al-Shabaab have also been fell by unknown assailants. The killings have been blamed on the hit squad, a claim that the government has been denying.

    Leading to his death, Abubakar Shariff Ahmed aka Makaburi in series of interviews with Western media predicted his death. In one instance, he told UK’s Daily Mail that he was living on borrowed time, and his killing was a forgone conclusion. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he singled out the Anti-Terrorism Unit as the ones who’d execute him. In April 2014 Makaburi was shot dead by hitmen on a motorcycle while leaving Shanzu Law Courts where he had attended his terrorism charge mentions.

    In April 2014 Makaburi was shot dead by hitmen on a motorcycle while leaving Shanzu Law Courts where he had attended his terrorism charge mentions.

    How did Kenya establish such a lethal terror squad?

    A hit squad member remains anonymous in an interview with Al Jazeera opening up on the extra judicial killings
    A hit squad member remains anonymous in an interview with Al Jazeera opening up on the extra judicial killings

    Aljazeera, in an investigative documentary, unearthed the existence of Kenya’s killer squad. The international outlet exclusively managed to talk to members of the lethal squad and conducted anonymous interviews with them.

    Speaking to Al Jazeera, the four men – all members of Kenyan intelligence and special police units – said they had all been involved in the assassination of terror suspects, with one claiming to have killed more than 50. ‘We don’t arrest,’ a gunman from the Radiation Unit of the Kenyan General Service Unit’s (GSU) elite Recce Company told the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit.

    The gunman appeared in the programme ‘Inside Kenya’s Death Squads’ alongside a commando from Recce Company, a member of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and a spy for the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).

    According to Al Jazeera, all of the officers play an integral part in Kenya’s counter-terrorism strategy and all have had a hand in assassinating suspects.

    Kenyan police have assassinated nearly 500 terrorism suspects in the context of an extrajudicial killing program supported by intelligence provided by Israel and the United Kingdom, Al Jazeera investigation revealed.

    Slain Cleric, Makaburi in an heated interview with UK's Daily Mail reporter Paul Bentley
    Slain Cleric, Makaburi in an heated interview with UK’s Daily Mail reporter Paul Bentley

    According to the officers who talked to Al Jazeera, Israel and the U.K. provide training, equipment and intelligence to Kenyan officers on how to “eliminate” suspects targeted by Kenyan security forces.

    Both Israel and the U.K. denied involvement. The U.K. Foreign Office added that it had “raised concerns” with the Kenyan government over such “serious allegations.”

    The police killings, according to the ATPU officer speaking to Al Jazeera, are ordered by Kenya’s National Security Council and run into hundreds every year. “Day in, day out, you hear of eliminating suspects,” the officer said. “Since I was employed, I’ve killed over 50. I do become proud because I’ve eliminated some problems,” said another officer.

    Kenyan police put the lifeless body of slain Muslim cleric Abubakar Shariff Ahmed into the back of a police pickup truck on a highway in Mombasa, Kenya, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Attorney Mbugua Mureithi, attorney for radical Islamic leader Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who had been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations for supporting the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, said his client has been assassinated Tuesday along with another man whose identity has not yet been established, near the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa, Kenya. (AP Photo)
    Kenyan police put the lifeless body of slain Muslim cleric Abubakar Shariff Ahmed into the back of a police pickup truck on a highway in Mombasa, Kenya, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Attorney Mbugua Mureithi, attorney for radical Islamic leader Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who had been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations for supporting the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, said his client has been assassinated Tuesday along with another man whose identity has not yet been established, near the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa, Kenya. (AP Photo)

    The ATPU officers contend that Kenya’s weak judicial system forced them to resort to assassinations, as police have failed to produce strong enough evidence to prosecute terrorism suspects.

    “If the law cannot work, there’s another option … eliminate him,” an officer explained.

    Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Security Council members denied the allegations.

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  • President Uhuru Kenyatta Rise to Glory Coincided With Rise of Mungiki; New York Times Rattles Statehouse

    President Uhuru Kenyatta Rise to Glory Coincided With Rise of Mungiki; New York Times Rattles Statehouse

    Luis Moreno Ocampo the former Prosecutor of the icc
    Luis Moreno Ocampo the former Prosecutor of the ICC

    New York Times’ James Verini did a month’s long investigated story looking into how International Criminal Court (ICC) embodied the hope of bringing warlords and demagogues to justice. The story then goes to see how the then Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo took on the heir to Kenya’s most powerful political dynasty. The article, which has since gone viral, is causing stomach upsets amongst those severely mentioned. President Kenyatta has bashed the magazine for being inconsiderate terming the publication a falsehood and done in bad faith.

    President Kenyatta from the onset has been a fierce critic of the court where he was charged alongside the famous Ocampo six for crimes against humanity. All the suspects have since been exonerated with the last defendants to escape noose being his counterpart in Jubilee government Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang.
    Uhuru Kenyatta’s rise coincided with the rise of Mungiki, the group Moreno-Ocampo would later accuse him of conspiring with in the post-election violence, writes James Verini. Started as a tribal revivalist movement, Mungiki grew into a militaristic political fraternity and then into a criminal gang. Around the time Mungiki fought to take over the lucrative private bus lines that are the primary form of transport in Kenya, in the early 2000s, the gang staged a massacre in northern Nairobi that left severed heads scattered in the streets.

    Uhuru Kenyatta Follows proceedings at the ICC
    Uhuru Kenyatta Follows proceedings at the ICC

    By then, Mungiki was being described as a “state within a state,” with up to two million members, according to reports. They swore an oath of loyalty to the Kikuyu tribe and the Mungiki leader, a charismatic, ruthless man known as Maina Njenga. According to the ICC, new recruits “were told they would be killed if they violated the oath or left the organisation.” When clashes broke out between Kikuyu and other tribes, Njenga dispatched his men to fight.

    He also persuaded politicians to take the Mungiki oath. Paul Muite, a Member of Parliament at the time and now a lawyer who represents Njenga and other members of Mungiki, which is still active, told me that almost every Kikuyu politician of consequence he knew during that era took the oath. For Njenga, it was “a way of collecting” power, Muite says. According to Muite and a former lieutenant of Njenga’s with whom NY Times spoke to, one of the politicians who took the oath, before becoming president, was Kibaki.

    Some Mungiki members, including Njenga, supported Kenyatta’s 2002 presidential campaign. Kenyatta denounced the group and would later tell Moreno-Ocampo in court that “I have always publicly condemned and stated that I have no association whatsoever with Mungiki.” Njenga’s former lieutenant, however, described to me a series of meetings he attended with Kenyatta and Njenga in 2002, saying that Kenyatta was friendly with Mungiki. But, he added, Kenyatta didn’t like or trust Njenga.

    In the 2007 election, Kenyatta did not run, instead supporting Kibaki in his race against Raila Odinga. By the close of Election Day, two days after Christmas, the vote was too close to call. The count was delayed. The tally centre in Nairobi was mysteriously broken into. Then on Dec. 30, the government suddenly announced Kibaki had won. He was hurriedly sworn in, and a media blackout was imposed. Odinga instructed his followers to protest. By New Year’s Day, Kikuyu were being slaughtered. Mungiki began striking back in January.

    Former Mungiki Leader Maina Njenga
    Former Mungiki Leader Maina Njenga

    The government did little to stop the post-election violence, but afterwards, it set up a commission of inquiry. Known as the Waki Commission, it issued a 529-page report in October 2008. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous government agency, published a comparably exhaustive report.

    Each was damning. Officials in Odinga’s party had planned violence months in advance, while envoys of President Kibaki met with Mungiki to plan retaliatory attacks. Security agents and the police had conspired with the gang. “There were no good guys,” a Waki commissioner, Pascal Kambale, told me. “There were only bad guys.”

    Moreno-Ocampo, who monitored the violence as it was happening, travelled to Nairobi to speak with Kibaki. He encouraged Kibaki to refer Kenya to the ICC, as Congo and Uganda had made referrals. Government capacity wasn’t the problem, Moreno-Ocampo knew. Kenya was capable of trying the suspects.

    Uhuru Kenyatta in one of his ICC appearances at the Hague Court
    Uhuru Kenyatta in one of his ICC appearances at the Hague Court

    The problem was as it had been in Argentina: The government was the criminal. And not only the government. The National Commission on Human Rights report listed more than 200 suspected inciters and funders of the violence, including presidential cabinet members, legislators, businessmen, shopkeepers, farmers. In a moment of collective insanity, Kenyan society had turned on itself.

    Still, Moreno-Ocampo continued to press Kenyan officials to begin prosecutions. In 2009, the Kenyan Parliament voted against a tribunal — unsurprisingly, as the Parliament itself was full of suspects — and Moreno-Ocampo requested that the ICC judges allow him to open an investigation. They did. It was the first time he invoked his power to seek charges on his authority, without a referral.

    In a part, the magazine reflects back to Kenyatta senior reign, After Jomo was freed and elected president of an independent Kenya in 1964, his revolutionary impulses didn’t persist. He stocked the government and businesses with family members and fellow Kikuyu.

    The Waki report didn’t name Kenyatta, but the National Commission on Human Rights report did, saying that he reportedly “attended meetings to plan for retaliatory violence by the Kikuyus” and “contributed funds.” Kenyatta was considered by many Kikuyu, including many Mungiki, to be their leader, and was understood to be the richest man in the country. If anyone had the motivation and funds to back an ethnic war, Moreno-Ocampo’s investigators reasoned, it was Kenyatta.

    Maina Njenga in company of CORD lEADER rAILA oDINGA SHOWING HIS WOUNDS AFTER A FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE THAT LEFT HIS AIDES KILLED
    Maina Njenga in company of CORD lEADER rAILA oDINGA SHOWING HIS WOUNDS AFTER A FAILED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE THAT LEFT HIS AIDES KILLED

    The court considered charging Maina Njenga, the Mungiki sect Chairman. When Njenga was questioned by Kenyan investigators, he pleaded ignorance. But to the ICC investigators, he came clean. He detailed the structure of his organisation and its role in the violence. Njenga claimed to his lawyer, Paul Muite, that he had personally administered the Mungiki oath of loyalty to Kenyatta, though whether Njenga told this to ICC investigators is unclear. Njenga was “very forthright,” Muite told NY Times, and he later agreed to testify in The Hague.

    In a punchy conclusion, the writer notes having spoken to a former Mungiki high ranked leader, like many Kenyans he was talking with, says he regrets the violence but believes it was necessary. The Kikuyu, his tribe, faced a massacre, he is convinced. The last time we met, I asked if he thought Kenyatta was guilty of the ICC charges.

    A Luo PEV Victim displaying his wounds to a NY Times photographer
    A Luo PEV Victim displaying his wounds to a NY Times photographer

    He recounted a meeting he attended in January 2008, in the midst of the postelection violence, where Kenyatta was the chief guest and Mungiki were present. In the meeting, Kenyatta was careful never to mention violence explicitly nor the gang by name. But he collected cash donations. I asked the former lieutenant if it was possible Kenyatta did not understand violence was being planned.

    “No,” he said, “it is not possible.”

    I asked again.

    “No,” he repeated. “With capital letters.”

    Adapted from New York Times Magazine

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  • Burial of Truth As DCI Muhoro Recommends Public Inquest into Jacob Juma Murder

    Burial of Truth As DCI Muhoro Recommends Public Inquest into Jacob Juma Murder

    juma car
    Juma’s car that he’s body was recovered at Karen Police Station

    The Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro has recommended that there should be a public inquest into the death of prominent business person Jacob Juma. This seems to indicate that the investigations by police have hit a dead end hence a public hearing to gather more information.

    Given that the death of the business person is of public interest, the inquest that will be done in public will gather questions and possible answers to unravel the mysteries behind the killing.

    Juma’s body was recovered in his car around Lenana School along Ngong Road on the 6th of May. Initial police reports said the businessman’s car was blocked by a car in front before assailants riding a motorbike sprayed his car with bullets that killed him.

    This theory has since been dismissed with glaring facts that the bullets impact on his body and the vehicle state couldn’t add up. According to postmortem results, Juma was killed with two bullets to his chest, and his car windscreen couldn’t support the theory of assailants shooting in his vehicle. General view from several analyses seems to endorse the theory that he was killed elsewhere and body later on planted at the scene.

    The slain businessman Jacob Juma
    The slain businessman Jacob Juma

    Historically, in Kenya public inquests have been put on controversial murders, and there’s yet a positive result from the investigations that can be written home. Most have only served as grounds for innuendos, dramas, washing of dirty linen. In the case of Juma, you can anticipate seeing his love for women overshadow the course.

    From Robert Ouko, Julie Ward and recently Mercy Keino, public inquests haven’t led to a positive end, closing in on murders but avenues for push and pull dramas. The police managed to capture Juma’s last movements using the Automated Number Plate Recognition cameras, and video clips from the Intelligent Surveillance cameras.

    The cameras were however suspiciously off at strategic points which would’ve helped majorly in revelation. Cameras are off at Trattoria Restaurant, here there are ten cameras, Juma allegedly dropped the woman Cheryl Kitonga he was last seen with here.

    Police said they had recovered AK47 rifle that was used to kill Juma. Four thugs were gunned down during the incident.

    Will Juma’s public inquest be different from the rest that has been established before? The ODPP is reviewing the files from the CID and will give the decision later. He made a name for being the most vocal and powerful anti-corruption crusader something that made him create enemies in high places. Jacob was a fierce critic of the Jubilee government whom in his Twitter rants he accused of being behind his assassination plot. His close ally and CORD leader, Raila Odinga has publicly accused the state of being behind the assassination.

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  • Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi Arrested over Leakage of KPMG Audit Report on Safaricom

    Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi Arrested over Leakage of KPMG Audit Report on Safaricom

    Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi
    Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi

    Trouble has once again caught up with Kenya’s most controversial blogger. Nyakundi was arrested on Friday at Galleria Shopping Mall on Friday evening while in the company of a friend. The incident where over twelve CID officers were involved caused a major stir and standoff at the venue.

    He was later transferred to CID headquarters in Kiambu for questioning before being put under custody in Muthaiga Police Station where he is still being held. While the initial reason for the arrest was unclear, Kenya Insights can now authoritatively confirm that leakage of KPMG report online and sustained campaign, serialising the report by the blogger held the bulk of arrest.

    The damning dossier by accounting firm KPMG — which is now the subject of a parliamentary investigation — details a review of 23 questionable tenders awarded between September 2013 and August 2015.

    The telco hired KPMG to do an in-depth audit of the two-year period following concerns about integrity and value to shareholders.
    Safaricom Chief Finance Officer John Tombleson(has since been recalled by Vodafone following the allegations) and four other senior executives are named as having influenced the purchase of a Sh1.15 billion five-acre piece of land at Garden City, where the telco plans to build its headquarters.

    KPMG auditors also questioned payments of Sh1.2 billion to seven firms for marketing activations that promote the Safaricom brand and its products.

    Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore
    Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore

    The report also examines the company’s procurement of corporate promotional merchandise worth Sh201 million from Vajas Manufacturers Ltd, Chinese technology firm Huawei’s Sh1.25 billion contract to upgrade the M-Pesa platform and payments of Sh1.2 billion to media services company Scanad, which is a subsidiary of WPP Scangroup.

    Doubtful deals include South Korean firm Kaon Media’s Sh161 million contract to supply set-top boxes, My 1963 commuter card project with Fibre Space (Sh15 million), purchase of network spares management from GSM Systems (Sh201 million) and a billing system from Huawei (Sh839 million).

    Safaricom’s CEO had earlier tasked the CID to investigate those behind the leakage of the KPMG report. He exonerated his staff of any wrongdoing saying the report was still in its draft form and not conclusive.

    Ironically, Nyakundi started serialising the report on his website days after some other blogs had already begun doing it. He then followed up with a series of sustained Twitter campaigns highlighting the scandals poked in the report. The other main outlets as Nation Media Group have also steadied their serialisation on the report. From the information available, Safaricom has reviewed their adverts contract with large outlet following the serialisation of KPMG report.

    Bob Collymore and Michael Joseph have also sued the blogger for defamation and due for a court appearance on 28th, June. The Safaricom CEO sued Nyakundi for calling him corrupt and one without moral integrity, MJ sued because he was called Mr Ten per cent a reference to taking tips over any tender issued during his time at Safaricom.

    However, it’s not only Safaricom who are the bloggers case but currently, National Bank and Bidco also have ongoing cases with him over posts that he made on his popular site and social media outlets. Bidco is under probe by the UNDP following claims that the company was involved in land grabbing and environment destruction in Uganda. Bidco has also been sued for tax evasion in Kenya amounting to Sh.5.7BILLION.

    The blogger who has made a name out of exposing scandals in the major sectors, a course that has since gained him high profile enemies amongst them Chris Kirubi, William Kabogo, Hassan Joho amongst others.

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