A well-known Kenyan blogger who works for William Ruto’s UDA party, Denis Itumbi was found yesterday badly beaten and injured. His situation looked very bad and whoever is responsible for kidnapping and torturing this guy needs to be arrested, charged in court, and locked up in jail.
When M.Ps allied to Ruto visited the victim they have come with some very sensational and disturbing claims that have to be fully investigated.
According to the Star, the M.Ps are accusing state agencies as the perpetrators of this hideous act claiming that some hit squads exits to do this kind of harm to Kenyans.
“Itumbi has confirmed that his abductors took turns to beat him while warning him that the torture was revenge for his social media coverage of CS Fred Matiang’i, PS Karanja Kibicho, the Inspector-General of the Police Service Hillary Mutyambai, and DCI George Kinoti,” the MPs said in a statement read by Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika.
“They also questioned him on a post he made on Saturday 18th December 2021 on the formation of a KRA team led by Sammy Muchemi ostensibly to harass business people associated with Deputy President William Ruto,” the MPs said in the joint statement.
The MPs alleged that the abductors demanded that Itumbi stop discussing David Mwendwa, son of the Inspector-General of the National Police Service, who is under investigation following a road accident that claimed the lives of two bodaboda riders.
The Police through their spokesman have denied any such claims and asked anybody with any information on this matter to contact them.
Read:Police launch investigations on Itumbi’s abduction, torture
Itumbi had even claimed that the abductors had promised to take him to their boss for more punishment.
A few things are very disturbing here. One is that if indeed the police bosses Matiang’i and Karanja Kibicho were involved in this then they need to be sent to jail and they are definitely unfit to hold office.
The other disturbing thing here is that if what Itumbi is saying is true then the kidnapping police officers were busy confessing their crime, who sent them and giving Itumbi all the information he needed to get Karanja Kibicho and Matiang’i arrested and charged with a crime.
It is hard to comprehend how stupid any of these officers would have to be to engage in self-confession while committing a crime. And this was supposed to be some kind of revenge for social media stuff. Did they scrub out the stuff while beating Itumbi or they were just giving him more material for his social media? It doesn’t add up.
The only thing the alleged officers didn’t provide is some written or recorded instructions they got from their bosses and they also forgot to leave their names with Itumbi.
Everything else they left there. That brings a lot of suspicions and I am sorry for Itumbi if he thinks some people are questioning his sincerity but the facts as they stand to leave us no option but to question whether this was a hit job from inside for other motives.
Kenyans have a right to raise those concerns because it would be a nightmare for the whole country if we start engaging in this kind of violent mischief to bring Kenyans at war with our police officers when the police are actually innocent.
So if this is a mischievous political stunt then whoever is responsible has to go to jail and anybody trying to incite Kenyans against the police force is playing with fire for the whole country.
Read: Ruto loses in the 2021 Parties Act
For a while now William Ruto and his UDA squad have been making a lot of noise about how “deep state” in their case led by the security bosses Matiang’i and Karanja Kibicho are determined to frustrate them while helping their political rivals to win the election.
If that is true and they have evidence of it they have every right to raise those concerns. If it is a narrative being cooked up by Ruto and UDA to claim election rigging and to incite the public against the police force then it is very dangerous and those fomenting it need to be held to account.
Take this Itumbi case for example. In the terrible event that Itumbi could have lost his life and Kenyans are being told he was killed by the police, what can we expect.
It could be mayhem because their political friends would be ready to invade police stations for their own “revenge” and we know where that goes. We lived through it in 2007/8 and Kenyans are truly determined never to see that kind of mayhem again.
Can we leave the police out of our political battles for power? There is no power in all of this world worth Kenyan lives and it often starts from little reckless and stupid things.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
