Lamu Governor Issa Timamy: I'm being crucified for my fight against graft

Lamu Governor Issa Timamy

Lamu Governor Issa Timamy has for the first time spoken about his tribulations. Mr Timamy, who was arrested last week in connection with the Lamu massacre that left 65 people dead, alleged that he was a victim of corruption cartels and State agencies that want him out of the county to pave the way for its dissolution and plunder of taxpayers' money.

Timamy told United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Musalia Mudavadi, who visited him at Port Police Station where he is being held, that he was tricked by police officers to return to Lamu from Nairobi only to be subjected to a harrowing eight-hour drive from Lamu to Mombasa. He said the experience was akin to being abducted by Al-Shabaab miltitants.

Timamy, who is said to have met with his executive committee while in police custody on Saturday, in a bid to keep his government afloat, claimed that his arrest was masterminded by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku, Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo and Lamu County Commissioner Stephen Ikua.

The governor accused the officials of tormenting and treating him with contempt even before his "premeditated" arrest. He claimed the three officers avoided him when they visited Mpeketoni after the killings.

"They treated me with hostility when they arrived. They were reluctant to greet me, avoided me and excluded me from meetings with administrators. They even refused to allow me to address the barazas they held. In all events, I had to force myself on them," he said and questioned why Ikua remained in charge of the Lamu County Security Committee after the removal of other security officials.

Timamy alleged that he was being framed due to his crusade against corruption.

"They want to profile this as an ethnic issue. The truth is that the killings have the face of Kenya, but there is another motive. Since my election, I've been fought and have not known a moment of peace... The Lapsset project is meant to rake in billions for corrupt cartels. I am seen as an impediment. Because of my faith in accountability and transparency, I must be taken out," added Timamy.

He further alleged that detectives were trying to manufacture evidence to prove a theory first propounded by President Uhuru Kenyatta that the massacre in Mpeketoni, which happened mid this month, was perpetrated by local politicians.

"I am being accused of things I can never conceive. They have resorted to propaganda that I have committed acts of terrorism and crimes against humanity, yet the Government has refuted terrorism in the attack. These are international crimes. But I have been arrested without evidence because the powers that be are trying to show they are doing something... it's a cover-up. I must therefore be sacrificed," he added.

According to Timamy, the State ordered his arrest and detention in order to enable it manufacture evidence.

"I know unscrupulous elements are mobilising the recording of fake statements," he said.

Timamy, who has been in police custody since Thursday, will be returned to court this morning to renew an application for bail, which the State is expected to oppose as it seeks additional time to complete investigations.

Meanwhile, The Standard has learnt that although Timamy has been allowed visitors, a change of clothes, access to family and opportunity to host his cabinet from within the police precincts, detectives are still holding his mobile phone, which they confiscated when he was arrested.

Yesterday, Lamu County Secretary Siyat Osman told The Standard that police allowed Timamy to meet his cabinet for two hours on Saturday in a secure place within the station and did not interfere as they "watched from a distance".

Mr Siyat said in spite of the governor's arrest, the county administration had not collapsed and Saturday's meeting apprised Timamy of county government's state of affairs and also approved 12 development programmes, and agreed to avert the closure of Mpeketoni District Hospital where staff had threatened to leave over insecurity.

"The county government is running and we are dispensing services," Siyat said yesterday in Mombasa, adding that when he spoke with his cabinet, Timamy was in high spirits and "he said he has nothing to fear because he is innocent".

Mr Mudavadi was accompanied by several leaders from different political parties when he met Timamy at the police station on Friday.

"When I see all these people, they give me strength. I'll fight to prove my innocence and see justice done. We cannot afford to dismember the fragile ethnic relations in Lamu," was his opening statement to Mudavadi and his delegation.

Timamy claimed that when the first attack occurred on June 15, he called Ikua for consultations and the officer promised to call him back but never did.

"I called Ikua immediately I received reports of the Mpeketoni attack at about 8pm and he told me he would get back to me. He never did. I tried to reach all other security officers in vain. Some of these officers have been transferred, not interdicted as you are being told. Ikua has not though he chairs the (Lamu]) county security committee. The same officers whose duty is to detect and prevent crime, and should be answerable for the atrocities, are now my accusers."

Timamy said the authorities were determined to prove the killings targeted one tribe and push the "local political networks" theory, but the motive was deeper. He said the Jubilee government was plotting to find a reason to dissolve the Lamu County government to create room for a pliant one that would allow plunder of local land and the Lapsset projects.

The Governor described himself as a man of peace whose conscience was clear in spite of the "ICC-like charges transferred to me."