BY JOSEPH KARIMI

NAIROBI, KENYA: During the morning hours of July 17 1991, my  Group Managing Editor came to my desk and asked me to follow him to his office immediately. He wore a stern face  and I had a foreboding that all was not well.

As I settled into a chair expecting vociferations, I noticed he had been labouring with his mark-pen on a story with my by-line. He looked at me and told me: “You are in trouble over this…” as he pointed to the story appearing on the back page.

Those were the days President Moi’s government was up in arms with dissidents, both real and imagined. I had developed shock-absorbers out of a habit and from security apparatus poking their noses everywhere in their hunt for anti-Nyayo elements.

The back page story was headlined: “Nyayo House: Koigi trial man dies.” I had obtained the details from impeccable sources and I therefore stood with my story. My boss told me to wait and see what would unfold.

Koigi’s arrest

At that moment, we did not know that a security committee had discussed the contents of my article and expressed concern about the Koigi issue and furthermore how I had uncovered their secrets relating to the “witness in protective custody.”

Three years earlier, in September 1990, I had written a story relating to Koigi’s arrest purportedly at Nairobi’s Eastland Estate. The ‘hot’ story had been released by the Deputy Director of Special Branch who claimed they had trailed Koigi to a Kariobangi House flat, then the residence of his friend and lawyer Rumba Kinuthia, arresting him at 2 am.

Police claimed further that Koigi had in his possession a bag containing 10 Russian made AK-47 rifles, 10 Chinese-manufactured hand grenades and several pistols strapped to his back.

 According to police, Koigi had slipped into the country from exile in Oslo, Norway, to plan an overthrow of the Nyayo government. The story released by the Deputy Director of the Special Branch could not be doubted and had been so well framed to make it foolproof. It was splashed on the front page the following day.

But as soon as I arrived at one of my drinking dens that evening from the office, I met a police reservist who shocked me by revealing that Koigi had been in their custody for over a month after they captured him at hotel room in Busia.  

We had been taken for a ride. My police version of the story appeared the next morning bearing my by-line. I felt so bitter after realising that the police had used me to  cheat readers. There was nothing I could do for the moment. I was angered to an extent that I did not even look at my story when I reached the office the following morning. There was no pride in doing a good story.

Consequently, Koigi was paraded before court and with a litany of charges claiming he was planning to overthrow the government with armaments allegedly found on his person.

Those were the days one did not have  had the guts to question such dictates from the high powered organs of the State.

 The Koigi story was a simple one. He told it later giving facts about his arrest from Equator Hotel in Busia. He had arrived in the town in September 1990, in the company of a friend to meet his cousin Kuria wa Kariuki who was expected to travel from Nakuru.

Koigi said on the second day of his stay, he noticed some curious men and women staring at him as he sat reading outside his hotel. He became suspicious and asked the hotel owner whether it was usual for Kenyan police and immigration officials to hang aroubd at hotel. The owner said yes.

By the third day when his cousin had not shown up. Koigi was restless. His visit had been anticipated, it appeared.

He said at 11 pm that night as he was in bed reading. “I heard a key turn in the key hole and in a flash, five men entered the room. I tried to kick and push, but they overpowered me. They pinned me to the ground without uttering a word, blindfolded me with an opaque cloth and gagged my mouth with a chemically laced tape. Within seconds, I was unconscious.”

It was hours before he came back to his senses. By that time, he was already in  the Nyayo House cells. “Do we serve you Kenyan or Norwegian tea, sir,” a soft sarcastic voice greeted him as he stood naked in a puddle of water in the basement cells he later realised was Nyayo House.

One of his captors offered him a mug but Koigi refused to take it. The sedation effect of the chemical sent him back to sleep in the water. He was later paraded in court to answer “treason” charges.

 Witness

When Koigi was captured in Busia, a team of security men went out hunting for people suspected to be Koigi’s close associates and thus captured the man who was shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with police at Nyayo House.

The deceased, Bernard Githinji Kiragu hailed from Engashura Bahati, in Nakuru; Koigi’s home area. He was to be a key prosecution witness in Koigi’s treason trial. He had lasted in Nyayo House for months under protective custody, being treated well and was allowed to go to discos under escort.

My story elicited a lot of queries with the authorities of the special branch wanting to ascertain which of their boys I associated with. My boss did not give me any feedback about the story and the matter rested there for a while.

 About five months later, I was to learn from one of my close friends that I had been placed under surveillance by the special branch for two months running. Two teams using two different cars were assigned to me and followed me everywhere. They trailed my car as I criss-crossed the city centre to Ngong Road, South B, South C, Carnivore, Eastleign, you name it. They would leave after I would park at Kariobangi Estate to sleep, usually in the wee hours.

These “special escorts” I was later told never failed in their trails and gave reports on my after sunset movements and the people I associated with. They were trying to identify which of their officers were the sources they could blame the Nyayo House story on. I was assured they found nothing.