Former Police Commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali and former First Lady the late Lucy Kibaki/ THE BRIEF
Wikileaks has released a letter from a Kenya policeman that claims former First Lady Lucy Kibaki and retired Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali had ordered the killing of prominent politicians, including Martha Karua and Gitobu Imanyara, BBC’s Ferdinand Omondi reports.
In a thread on his Twitter handle, Omondi says the letter (attached below) quotes powerful people in Mwai Kibaki’s government as behind the assassination schemes.
“Apparently the President wasn’t aware. And claims they rehearsed the assassinations by killing prominent businessmen.,” Omondi tweeted.
Wikileaks says the politicians monitored for possible assassination were lawyer Paul Muite, Ferdinand Waititu, GG Kariuki, Bonny Khalwale, Imanyara, Karua and businesswoman Mary Wambui.
MUNGIKI KILLINGS
“The letter further claims police killed 1,869 Mungiki, and 631 suspected robbers. The man who wrote the letter says he killed more than 40 people himself. The police unit was the defunct Kwekwe Squad. He claims they were paid Sh25,000 every week in allowances,” Omondi said.
The unit to carry out the assassinations was to be paid Sh150, 000 each. In killing Mungiki, police deployed the same tactics the militia used. “We tie their necks, hands and legs and hang them on trees and even cars until they are dead,” says the letter.
Former head of Special Crimes Prevention Unit Richard Katola, who died inn 2015, features prominently.
The letter says at least a dozen police officers who conducted the killings died or disappeared.
Former Internal Security Minister George Saitoti was kept in the dark, ‘but was used to issue parliamentary statements’. Saitoti later died in a ‘suspicious’ helicopter crash in 2012.
There are also detailed reports on extra-judicial killings, land ownership in Kenya and Raila Odinga’s plan to take over power from Kibaki Post 2007.
At the time of this letter police were dealing with the dreaded Mungiki sect and their benefactors.
The letter says Kikuyu men were the main targets for killings, but doesn’t show whether the politicians were targeted for perceived Mungiki links or a separate motive.
