Commentaries
Silence reluctance and failure by your Nyanza Police to investigate the death of Kenyan Journalist Found Decapitated In Forest
- Details
- Published on Monday, 09 March 2009 20:46
have resorted to write to you after exhausting all channels within Nyanza Province Police in agitating for the arrest and prosecution of suspects who are believed to have had a hand in the brutal killing of the late freelance journalist Francis Kainda Nyaruri aka Mokua Mong’are.
As a busy top cop, you may not have been well informed by your juniors regarding the circumstances that surrounded the death of this scribe. Nyaruri is reported to have disappeared on the 16th day of January at around 11 am.Nothing was done by police to find out the whereabouts of Nyaruri even after fellow colleagues and his kinsmen petitioned the Provincial Police Office to marshal all resources to investigate the matter.
After a hopeless search by his relatives, in and around Oyugis Township, the worst fears were confirmed?Nyaruri’s remains in a decomposing and mutilated state was found by village hunters in the thick of Kodera Forest on 30th.january 2009.Reports from the OCPD in Nyamira confirmed that Nyaruri’s rotten body which was divided into two, head and abdomen was discovered in the bush with a set of his lower jaw bearing teeth beside them.
Initial reports from your cops in Nyamira also indicate that the late Nyaruri’s hands were tired behind his back and that some evidence showed that the scribe was beheaded. Now even after a coterie of local leaders including legislators made demands both from parliament buildings and from the highly charged funeral that the government should act fast in bringing to book the killers, there are no signs that Nyanza Police are moved by the grisly act.
The police in Oyugis and Nyamira have all been furnished with preliminary circumstances regarding the murder yet the men and women in uniform charged with investigations and prosecution at the provincial office have either intentionally developed cold feet or just turned a blind eye, or rendered a deaf ear into the matter.As a person who was moved by the killing of Nyaruri, I have personally implored your senior officers within Nyanza Province to set in and quickly throw light into the heinous act but so far, my efforts seems to be like a mere act of squeezing water from stone.
I would like your office to move in and send investigators and collect evidence and execute arrests with an intention of bringing to justice the killers of this innocent reporter.Shortly before his death, Nyaruri had told me that a Chief Officer, and two civic leaders from Nyamira Town Council the current Chairman and Finance Committee Chairman had threatened him that they would kill him.I have since written a statement with the investigating officer of the case Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr John Maritim who doubles up also as Nyanza Deputy Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer.
Nyaruri had also confided to me that he was once accosted by a crude terror gang leader who boldly told him that “his days were numbered”. The said terror leader, he said, warned him to watch his back as he was “meddling” in the issues of Nyamira Town Council. Whether he made these reports to the police is unknown and the police are yet to confirm that he had made prior reports about the threats.
As a busy top cop, you may not have been well informed by your juniors regarding the circumstances that surrounded the death of this scribe. Nyaruri is reported to have disappeared on the 16th day of January at around 11 am.Nothing was done by police to find out the whereabouts of Nyaruri even after fellow colleagues and his kinsmen petitioned the Provincial Police Office to marshal all resources to investigate the matter.
After a hopeless search by his relatives, in and around Oyugis Township, the worst fears were confirmed?Nyaruri’s remains in a decomposing and mutilated state was found by village hunters in the thick of Kodera Forest on 30th.january 2009.Reports from the OCPD in Nyamira confirmed that Nyaruri’s rotten body which was divided into two, head and abdomen was discovered in the bush with a set of his lower jaw bearing teeth beside them.
Initial reports from your cops in Nyamira also indicate that the late Nyaruri’s hands were tired behind his back and that some evidence showed that the scribe was beheaded. Now even after a coterie of local leaders including legislators made demands both from parliament buildings and from the highly charged funeral that the government should act fast in bringing to book the killers, there are no signs that Nyanza Police are moved by the grisly act.
The police in Oyugis and Nyamira have all been furnished with preliminary circumstances regarding the murder yet the men and women in uniform charged with investigations and prosecution at the provincial office have either intentionally developed cold feet or just turned a blind eye, or rendered a deaf ear into the matter.As a person who was moved by the killing of Nyaruri, I have personally implored your senior officers within Nyanza Province to set in and quickly throw light into the heinous act but so far, my efforts seems to be like a mere act of squeezing water from stone.
I would like your office to move in and send investigators and collect evidence and execute arrests with an intention of bringing to justice the killers of this innocent reporter.Shortly before his death, Nyaruri had told me that a Chief Officer, and two civic leaders from Nyamira Town Council the current Chairman and Finance Committee Chairman had threatened him that they would kill him.I have since written a statement with the investigating officer of the case Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr John Maritim who doubles up also as Nyanza Deputy Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer.
Nyaruri had also confided to me that he was once accosted by a crude terror gang leader who boldly told him that “his days were numbered”. The said terror leader, he said, warned him to watch his back as he was “meddling” in the issues of Nyamira Town Council. Whether he made these reports to the police is unknown and the police are yet to confirm that he had made prior reports about the threats.
By turning a deaf ear into the killing, the Nyanza Provincial Police Officer, Anthony Mugo Kibuchi is simply adding another tag of impunity to the image of an already soiled Kenya Police Service.It may be taken and rightly so that by refusing to take action and dig deeper into the matter, the PPO is not living to the force’s motto of “Utumishi kwa Wote”. There have been allegations that the lackluster manner in which the PPO has treated the matter is a pointer that some deal was signed when a delegation sent by the chief officer and the councilors to the Provincial Police Office had ill motives into the investigations.
There are indications that a batch of the late Nyaruri’s stories hit hard on the Nyamira Town Council, a fact that earned the slain scribe a reputation as the people’s darling and an enemy of the civic body.By acting in a manner likely to suggest that Kibuchi want to sweep some gory details regarding the murder under the carpet, will the right thinking media fraternity and the public be mistaken to believe that this was just yet another police designed and execution of a whistle blower?
Why is it that since the emotive burial that took place a couple of weeks ago the police are yet to convene a press conference and brief Nyaruri’s colleagues of the inroads (if any) that they have so far made into the issue? Are there suspects in police cells and if there are, who are they? Lastly, Nyaruri stood for the truth and the truth is what we presently demand in regard to circumstances which led to his heinous death.
