General Otaffire was quoted in the media urging the police to find out whether Ms Draru acted with others in murdering Kazini.
In high profile murder cases, shit happens. Let me take cover in Kenyan example. I have heard some journalists on this forum say that political murders do not take place in Uganda. That Ugandan leader do not murder their opponents. Well in Kenya, political murders happened. Not anymore under Mr Kibaki.
The best case is one about the late Dr Robert Ouko. Dr Ouko was murdered on the orders of Mr Nicholas Biwott apparently on the night he was on his way to Uganda to begin his exile. Mr Biwott was then Moi’s most trusted minister who ran the Kalenjin mafia. Hell broke literally. However, in Kenya unlike Uganda such suspicious deaths are probed so Mr Moi set up a Judicial Commision of Inquiry -their current Chief Justice was a member-but on the eve of what Mr Moi felt could deliver a bombshell, he dissolved the Commission of Inquiry.
To cut to the issue relevant to Ms Draru, under pressure, Mr Moi arrested Minister Biwott and put him in police custody. That was a real shock. He also ordered the once fomer PS of internal Security Mr Hezekiah Oyugi from South Nyanza who is believed to have worked with Biwottt to kill Dr Ouko arrested. The then Nyanza PC Mr Kobia was dismiised.
Now things took a turn for the worse. Mr Biwott left prison. But all the suspects including Mr Oyugi, Mr Kilonzo who was the Police Commissioner at the time, Mr Kobia the former PC and other suspects or those who knew something about Dr Ouko’s death all died under mysterious circumstances. Was it a mere coincidence? You read between the lines.
Being Vice President in Africa is not easy. This story may shock some of you, but it is apparently true.
Again, Kenya-where else- in the early 80s. The kalenjin mafia had come up with a plot to blow up then VP Mr Mwai Kibaki on a plane while on official visit.
Mr Kibaki’s allies in the intelligence system got wind of the plot which had all but been finalized. So the then Director of intelligence Mr Kanyotu, a Kikuyu from Kirinyanga and Mr Shaw a muzungu police reservist who also taught at Starehe centre and others swung into action.
The next day Mr Kibaki was to travel abroad. But if he boarded that plane that would be it. He would be brown up.
So his allies wrestled with the big question: how to stop their man from boarding that plane without laerting the plotters that they had become aware of the plot? Something drastic had to be done in the middle of the night.
Mr Kibaki’s father, Mzee Githinji had to die to save his son. So in the wee hours, he was murdered because that was the only way to stop Mr Kibakii from boarding that plane and be brown up by the Kalenjin mafia.
To fool the mafia, Mr Kibaki showed up at the airport ready to board that early morning flight for his overseas trip. The mafia were salivating and almost celebrating that their plot was about to work.
Then all of a sudden, Mr Kibaki was pulled aside by among others Mr Shaw-this Shaw used to shoot to kill thieves in Nairobi-and told that his father had died. His convoy pulled away and that particular plane flight was aborted.
Hard to believe, the death and cancellation of trip happened. His father was murdered in the wee hours when he was about to make an official trip abroad.
The political murders in Kenya caused political instability big time. They divided the ruling elite. The murders of Mr Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki in particular shook the Kiambu mafia. The only cabinet minister at the time to attend both funerals was Mr Mwai Kibaki. No other minister could dare attend a) for fear of Kenyatta’s reaction, b) the mourners would have pelted them.
Mr Moi made sure that the entire cabinet went to Kisumu to attend Dr Ouko’s funeral, but protected with a very heavy GSU presence.
It is actually nonsense for some of our fellow UAH members to claim that political murders never happen in Uganda.
About women who kill, the demenour of Ms Dralu is funny. The police is doing a good job letting her look presentable. She is not the monster woman who is the talk of ugandan everywhere. I bet you some Ugandan men desire her more!
WBK
ugandansatheart said,
November 11, 2009 at 6:00 pm
WBK,
You are right that political murders happen all over the word including Uganda and in most cases such decisions are made by a few high profile people in the government. Obviously,brother Katerega as an NRM cadre will keep telling you otherwise. The examples you gave in Kenya are very good but I don’t think there were capable of causing any political instability for Kenyans. Kenya has got very good institutions such that even the murders of Tom Mboya in 1969 and J. M. Kariuki in 1975 did not cause any political instability.
Nevertheless,we can argumentatively make all murders happening between now and 2011 elections political murders because NRM/Museveni have lost popularity among the wanaichi but wishes to stay in power at all costs.There are several Ugandans who agree with Timothy Kalyegira’s version of Kazini’s death than those who look at it as a product of domestic violence. That’s why we need an independent comission of inquiry to investigate both Byran(Dr.Bukenya’s son) and Kazini’s death regardless of those who cheer brutality and murder of these NRM Generals.
Again I would like to say that all murders are about hate at some level. Even the guy who kills the cop trying to escape from a crime scene or riots- has hate in his heart. There must be a good reason why Mukyala Atim Dralu decided to bat Kazini’s head to death.At what point did she decide to kill him?
As part of the murder probe, police must investigate the friends of lady Atim to see if she had premeditated thoughts to murder the General.Her mobile phone must be in police safe custody by now to establish the people she has been in contact with for the last 6 months. MTN and other communication companies can help on this one.
The only problem is that government does not set commissions of enquiry for purposes of getting to the butoom of the matter. That’s why Kazini’s family and friends should do their own investigations.Most African governments are just corrupt. Anybody can murder anybody and get away with it.
When governments agree to set up official investigations, they usually hope to divert public criticism of human rights abuses. They hope either that public interest will have waned by the time the inquiry is complete or, better still, that the investigation will find in the government’s favour .
For instance,in 1986, the Museveni Government set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by Joseph Mulenga, to investigate human rights violations from the country’s independence in 1962 until it seized power. Up to now, we don’t know the conclusions and recommendations of the report. Yet if they had made everything public, probably some Ugandans, like Mr. Mulindwa Edward, would not have continued to accuse the NRA rebels of murdering people in Luwero and blame it on Obote 2 government. I think Mulenga later became our Attorney General in the same year. I wonder why he was given this post after heading such a sensitive enquiry.
Another example is when in June 1974, President Idi Amin Dada established a Commission of Inquiry chaired by an expatriate Pakistani judge,Justice Mohammed Saied, to look into the ‘disappearance’ of large numbers of Ugandans since his government came to power on 25 January 1971. But the report never came into public domain though the Commission concluded that the Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau, special security bodies set up by Amin, bore the main responsibility for the ‘disappearances’. It also criticized army officers for abuse of powers, as well as the activities of the military police and intelligence.
The bottom line here is that the currrent government should facilitate murder investigations into the country and reports from these enquiries should be made public.There is no point for the president to order for a probe into Bryan’s death and the public never gets to see anything in it.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba