• It is in the public domain that Felicien Kabuga hid in Kenya for years, protected by senior government officials and that at the time of his refuge, a young and ambitious man was killed.
• That man was journalist William Munuhe, who was shot dead and his body disfigured with acid in his Karen apartment on January 14, 2003.
Image: COURTESY
News of the arrest of Rwandan fugitive Felicien Kabuga in Paris, France, on Saturday was received with relief by a Nyeri village family and an estate in Nakuru.
Kabuga, the man accused of funding the 1994 Rwandan genocide, had been on the run for 26 years. For a while, he hid in Kenya, protected by senior government officials.
During that period, a young and ambitious man was killed. Journalist William Munuhe Gichuki was found shot dead. His body was found disfigured with acid in his Karen apartment on January 14, 2003.
The journalist was murdered on the same day he allegedly had arranged to set up Kabuga for arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
The genocide fugitive had a $5 million (Sh400 million) bounty on his head.
This writer called Munuhe's mother, Wangui Gichuki, soon after the news broke and she asked in disbelief, “Where has he been arrested?”
It was a moment of relief for Wangui, who says hers has been torturous 17 years in search of justice for her son.
“What I can say is that we are happy as a family about this news and we feel our hearts have partially healed,” she said.
Her feeling was shared by Josephat Muriithi Gichuki, Munuhe’s elder brother, who lives in Nakuru.
I had been (in 2014) to Director of Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, to [Attorney General] Paul Kihara in 2018 and even written to the ICC. There, they opened a file and promised that should there be additional evidence, they would file it.Josephat Muriithi
He has sought justice for his brother for years. “There is no office I have not entered seeking justice. Now I feel happy and half-healed."
Josephat told the Star on Sunday: “I had been (in 2014) to Director of Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, to [Attorney General] Paul Kihara in 2018 and even written to the ICC. There, they opened a file and promised that should there be additional evidence, they would file it.”
It is expected Kabuga will face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
The office of the prosecutor for an international tribunal in The Hague said in a statement on Saturday: “The arrest of Félicien Kabuga today is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be brought to account, even 26 years after their crimes.”
Last December, Josephat sued the state at the High Court in Nakuru, seeking compensation for Munuhe’s murder.
The family also petitioned the court to order for the establishment of an inquiry to establish Munuhe’s cause of death and solve the mystery, according to court papers.
The case would have been mentioned on March 30 but was postponed due to Covid-19.
WHO WAS MUNUHE?
Muriithi describes Munuhe as a smart kid with 'really good English'.
“Even when we were kids, we could not compete with him in writing letters to our dad. So good was he that we stopped writing him letters and let Munuhe do it. For us, it was better to wait for him to come home than be criticised for poor English,” quipped Muriithi.
Munuhe showed interest in various issues at a tender age, Muriithi says.
Nairobi electrician Linus Muriithi remembers herding livestock with Munuhe whenever he and his sister visited their grandparents in Chieni, Mathira constituency.
“He was a very kind boy and very cheerful,” Linus said.
Years later, Linus remembers Munuhe’s mother following up on the murder in Nairobi.
According to Josephat, the principal of Mathaithi High School, Karatina (before it became a girls’ school) used to say that Munuhe's English was so good he struggled to understand him.
So good was Munuhe's grasp and command of English that the defunct Nairobi Star (not associated with this paper), a bi-weekly newspaper launched by Mt Kenya opposition politicians after the 1997 General Election, recruited him after his Form Four examination.
Josephat says the bi-weekly was linked to the then Kieni MP Munene Kairu.
Munuhe did not go to a mass communication school. The brother credits his fast rise and connections to his smartness.
The Nairobi Star went down after Kairu’s death in April 1998. Thereafter, Munuhe started writing features for the Nation and People Daily, according to Josephat.
One of the stories he followed was the Mariashoni deforestation in the Mau Forest. This led to his contact with senior politicians in the Rift Valley, among them Zakayo Cheruiyot, the brother says.
Zakayo Cheruiyot, former civil service chief and two-term Kuresoi South MP, was one of late President Daniel Moi's closest advisers.
Before he was murdered, Munuhe had disclosed to his family of threats he had received and that he was at one time allegedly abducted and tortured under express instructions of Kabuga in Nakuru.
Image: US STATE DEPARTMENT
At the time, Kabuga, a Rwandan Hutu, was using the name Idris Sudi.
The Daily Nation, in its January 21, 2003, edition said intelligence sources showed that Munuhe, Kabuga and “a government official” were once close allies.
“However, for unknown reasons, Munuhe and the civil servant fell out. This, sources said, raised fears that Mr Munuhe could become an informer and expose the link between the civil servant and the fugitive, and also reveal Mr Kabuga's whereabouts,” the Nation said.
There were attempts to cover-up his murder as a burning charcoal stove had been placed next to his bed to make it seem he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Then police spokesman Mwangi King'ori said he had committed suicide.
But the US Embassy in a press statement stressed: "While the precise circumstances of his death are mysterious and as yet unresolved, the embassy still believes that his death is directly related to his willingness to come forward with information on the whereabouts in Kenya of Felicien Kabuga."
LEFT ON THEIR OWN BY GOVERNMENT
Josephat says current and previous governments have caused them untold suffering by ignoring the case.
He says that Raila Odinga, for instance, did not speak about the murder although it happened in his Lang’ata constituency.
He also says President Mwai Kibaki did not mention the issue when he was invited in Rwanda for the 10th Rwandan genocide anniversary as the chief guest, and neither did President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 20th anniversary.
With the arrest of Kabuga, the family hopes justice will finally be served and the family compensated as they have used a lot of money seeking justice.
And it is not only for them but also for others who worked for Kabuga but were killed, some through poisoning.
-mwaniki fm