I was amused to hear Rigathi Gachagua asking the ICC to come to Kenya to help him fight Maina Njenga a fellow terrorist like him who has now been unleashed by President Ruto to fight him in their Mt Kenya tribal politics.
The former DP instructed his allies to assemble seasoned lawyers to write to the ICC to avoid any loss of lives.
Gachagua warned the trend can be seen in the current abductions and killings of young Kenyans.
Speaking at The Guardian Angels Tetu Catholic Church in Nyeri during the Sunday Church Service, Gachagua alleged that criminal gangs are being formed in some parts of the country ahead of the 2027 polls.
Gachagua told area leaders to assemble astute lawyers and begin the process of inviting the ICC.
“The ICC should not wait until crimes against humanity have been committed,” Gachagua said.
“…..get a team of lawyers to write to the ICC to invite them to come to Kenya and make sure that the activities of criminal gangs are not allowed to take place.”
“You should document the atrocities that were previously committed by the same gangs because those were crimes against humanity and start engaging the International Criminal Court.”
Gachagua claimed that some of the gangs include those proscribed and which have in the past been associated with killings.
“In the past, the gangs descend on the people of this region with brutal efficiency, they beheaded people and circumcised women, raped our daughters and defiled our children.”
Gachagua alleged that years later, the same gangs are being revived.
Gachagua cited the 2009 incident where a gang invaded a village in Nyeri and killed 29 people before raping women and perpetrating other crimes.
Gachagua said it took an extraordinary intervention by the then Minister for Interior the late John Michuki to extinguish the groups.
Gachagua has called on the National Police Service to stop the regrouping of the gangs.
“Are you saying the youths have abducted themselves, killed themselves and thrown themselves in ditches? Let us be truthful,” Gachagua said.
But here was my call for the ICC to come to Kenya when Riggy G was trying to murder anybody opposed to his then lovely friend, William Ruto.
This Guy is Taking Ruto to the ICC
By Adongo Ogony August 8, 2023
Inspector General Japhet Koome on Tuesday broke silence over the anti-government protests which happened last month.
Speaking on Tuesday in Nyeri, he claimed that politicians hired bodies from the mortuary and claimed they were of people killed during the protests.
“It is so unfortunate that some senior members of the society go to the mortuary hiring dead bodies, calling the media and telling them that these people were killed by the police. How low can some of our leaders sink?’ Koome posed.
“The information I have is that they (politicians) go to some of the mortuaries compromise some of the workers there,” the IG said.
“People who died of some illness, people who died maybe of an accident or other causes, they (politicians) take photographs of such bodies and blame on police. But we are not in the business of all the time responding to politicians.”
This is the first time Koome is speaking on demos since they happened for three days last month.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga had claimed that at least 50 people have been killed since March when the opposition coalition announced the resumption of weekly mass protests against the government.
Khan was in the country to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Mount Kenya University.
His presence caused jitters especially from Azimio la Umoja One Kenya side that claimed the ICC prosecutor would interfere with its planned case at The Hague. Azimio plans to take police to ICC over their handling of protests.
However, Khan has since clarified that he was in the country in his private capacity. “Please note that pursuant to Article 42.7 of the Rome Statute, Mr Karim A.A.Khan KC, in his capacity as Prosecutor of the ICC, has recused himself from all Kenya cases before the ICC,” said Khan’s office in a statement.
Ogolla says Khan’s visit was in bad taste, coming at a time when police have heavily been criticised for using excessive force against protestors.
“We strongly believe that his visit to Kenya came at the wrong time and that it could compromise on-going investigations into police brutality and human rights abuses committed by several state officials,” noted the Operation Linda Ugatuzi leader.
Ogola alleged that Khan is not fit for the job due to his past history of associating with influential individuals linked to abuse of human rights.
“Over the years, he has been consistently aligned with powerful individuals accused of human rights abuses, thereby leaving victims to question his dedication to justice and accountability,’’ he said.
According to Ogolla, the Prosecutor’s visit was used as scapegoat by the government to run away from being accountable.
“We are concerned that Mr Khan’s presence could be utilized to shield the Kenyan government from accountability for its alleged involvement in human rights violations. The victims of police brutality in Kenya deserve an unbiased and transparent process to seek justice, and we cannot afford any compromise in that pursuit,’’ he said.
Like Azimio, Operation Linda Ugatuzi plans to file a petition at the ICC over police brutality. “We shall be presenting a joint petition at the highest court seeking prayers from the court to demand that the government compensates all who were affected,” said Ogolla.
Ruto and his friends must have thought they were super smart to bring the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to Kenya to get a honorary degree.
Effectively that could backfire bigly on Ruto. Karim Khan is not an idiot. He has responsibilities in one of the most powerful institutions in the world. He is not going to screw that up for Ruto even though he was his lawyer in Ruto previous appearance at the ICC for crimes against humanity that Ruto was accused of during the 2007/8 Post Election Violence. Khan will not risk his career for Ruto in this case if there is evidence of crimes that ICC should take up in Kenya now.
The good news about the ICC cases for Kenya today is that people like Prof. Fred Ogola and the Azimio team have been collecting every evidence of the Ruto crimes including hospital records, affidavits, witness statements and they have all that data ready for the ICC. That is what really matters.
IG Koome can provide his evidence of “hired dead bodies” to the ICC and in fact it is the statement from Koome that makes it mandatory for ICC to investigate and prosecute the crimes being committed by President Ruto on Kenyans.
Already William Ruto is in a massive panic about the ICC cases and today Ruto signed an act to protect him and his terrorists from being taken to the ICC.
As long as Kenya remains a signatory to the ICC any phony laws signed by Ruto to protect him from the ICC are useless. Even Putin cannot sign any laws in Russia to protect him from ICC warrants. He has to lock himself in Russia and never leave the country.
If Ruto wants to remove Kenya from the ICC he will need a complete change of the Kenya constitution complete with a referendum.
Ruto knows he cannot do that. It is now obvious why Ruto tried to bring Karim Khan in as saviour. It is not happening this time. Karim Khan knows his job is not to protect anybody and he is not some broke chap who needs Ruto’s money. MORE ON THE 07/08 PEV
The panic by Ruto passing laws to protect himself just tells the whole world that he knows he is committing crimes against humanity in Kenya right now. Kenyans and the international community are going to deal with that very decisively. Ruto has to stop killing Kenyans instead of signing laws to help him kill Kenyans with impunity.
Kenya is a signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC and is obligated to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against humanity are held to account at the Hague.
In the 2007/8 massacres Farouk Kibet, Ruto’s killer murdered all the witnesses and their families and there was nobody to testify and Ruto had no case. Today that murderer Kibet is President Ruto’s personal assistant at State House slapping all the politicians to make them sing for Ruto. It is funny, isn’t it? What else did anybody expect.
Morticians challenge IG Koome for evidence over ‘hiring of bodies’
Say failure to do so, the Inspector General should withdraw his remarks
In Summary
• In a statement, the Morticians and Allied Professionals of Kenya (MAPAKe) condemned the IG’s remarks saying they were below his office.
• They said their operations are governed by ethics, chief among them respect of the confidentiality of the deceased, feelings and the right for the deceased to mourn.
Morticians have challenged Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome to name those implicated in the alleged hiring of corpses during anti-government protests or withdraw the remarks.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Morticians and Allied Professionals of Kenya (MAPAKe) condemned the IG’s remarks saying they were below his office.
“We condemn the statement made by the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome because we believe that no mortuary technician in the Kenya today can even attempt to do such a thing. The office of the Inspector General is such a respected office to even attempt to lower it to such imaginable actions,” MAPAKe said.
They said they serve all Kenyans regardless of tribe, religion, race, class or political affiliation are find it unfair for the IG to tag them into matters they are less concerned with.
On Tuesday, Koome absolved police from blame over alleged extrajudicial killings during anti-government protests in mid-July saying the opposition hired dead bodies from morgues and blamed police for shooting protesters.
The protests were called by the Azimio coalition from July 19-21 over the rising cost of living and high taxes.
“…and the information I have is they go to some of the mortuaries compromise the workers there, people who even died of some illness, people who died maybe out of an accident or other causes, they take photographs of such bodies and blame on the police,” Koome said during a visit to the Kiganjo Police Training College in Nyeri county.
But the morticians’ association dismissed the claims saying their operations are governed by ethics, chief among them respect for the confidentiality of the deceased, feelings and the right for the deceased to mourn their loved ones in peace.
They said contrary to misplaced belief, mortuary technicians are trained and registered by the Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority (KHPOA) and are no longer rogue, careless, dirty, drunk, reckless and uneducated individuals.
“Mortuary technicians operate within and observe the laws of Kenya in all our practice. We, however, don’t have control with what happens with our clients once they are out of our custody.
“The purpose of this press release therefore, is to demand the Inspector General to furnish both Kenya Health Professions Oversight Authority and Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, the two registering, regulating and licencing bodies of mortuary technicians and the mortuaries facilities respectively the particulars of those implicated for investigation,” MAPAKe said.
The group said appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against anyone found culpable from the resultant investigations.
“Failure to do so, the Inspector General should withdraw his remarks against the facilities as he put it and mortuary technicians as he also put it in his statement.”
Apologise, families of police killings tell Koome
Several families who lost their kin in the protests in parts of Nyanza still struggle to prepare for the burial even as they battle trauma.
The pain they went through at the hands of police officers is still fresh, and families who claim police officers took away their breadwinners are still unable to contend with the loss of their loved ones.
A spot check by The Standard at the homes of some of the victims established that some are still unable to foot the burial bills. The bodies of their loved ones are still at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) mortuary.
This trashes the statements made by the Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, who claimed that opposition leaders had hired bodies in mortuaries to taint the image of the police.
On Wednesday, at Nyalenda slums which bore the brunt of police brutality, a family who lost two sons were still making burial preparations for the double tragedy they attribute to police brutality.
Brian Oniang’o,22, and William Amulele, 24, died days apart while undergoing treatment at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital about two weeks ago.
The Standard also documented the medical journey of the two brothers as they battled for survival at the ICU, moments after they were shot by police officers.
Yesterday, Eveline Akhala, the mother of the two boys, shed a tear as she recounted the comments made by the IG.
She said the huge financial burden that comes with two funerals had delayed their plans to give the two boys a sendoff.
“We have planned to bury them next week. Is there any parent who can take the bodies of their children to a mortuary and give it to politicians?” she posed.
She recounted how she struggled to save their lives after being assaulted by police officers.
“When I took my sons to JOOTRH, they were not yet dead but unconscious. They were still breathing. After they died in the hospital. We did a postmortem, and I still have the documents with me. My sons were beaten up by police and that is what caused their death,” she said.
She has urged the IG to withdraw the statement and apologize to the victims saying that no parent can trade with the lives of their children, whether dead or alive.
She says her sons were assaulted on July 21. On a fateful day, the distraught mother claims her attempts to rescue her sons, including putting her own body on the line and suffering beatings herself from police officers, all failed.
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A few weeks before the unfortunate attack, her sons had moved into a single-room rented house next to her house as they struggled to make ends meet. While William worked as a waiter at a Kisumu restaurant, his younger brother hoped to join college and had opted to move out of their mother’s house to kick-start their life.
On the fateful day, she says, her sons had locked themselves in their house and did not leave the house. Little did they know that the angel of death would come knocking at their door in the form of uniformed police officers.
“At around 3 p.m., we heard neighbours screaming as police officers walked from door to door and beat up anyone they found,” she says.
Unfortunately, she claims the police officers managed to break the door of the single room where her sons had been staying and started beating them up.
She claimed she only heard screams from a neighbour who was calling her to come out of her house and rescue her sons.
“I heard a neighbour screaming and shouting to me to come out. When I rushed out, I found Brian and William being beaten up by a dozen of police officers. I kneeled and pleaded with the officers, but my pleas fell on deaf ears,” she narrates.
According to her, the IG owes the families of the victims an apology for his remarks.
“Koome should speak as an adult and as a parent. He shouldn’t have said such a thing. That’s very disrespectful to us (the victims),” she said.
According to Ms Trizah Mware, who is the secretary to the burial committee, they are yet to raise adequate resources for the burial even as they intend to bury this weekend.
“As of now, we are proceeding with burial preparations. We plan to bury them on separate days. Brian, we’ll bury on Saturday the 12th, while William will be buried on the 19th. We have tried as a family, but we still have a huge shortage. We are appealing to our leaders and any well-wisher to come and support us,” Mware said.
At Mowlem estate in Kisumu, Ms Lilian Okoth is worried and depressed. His 17-year-old son Fidel Castro Ochieng’ who was shot nine times by police on the second day of the Azimio demonstrations is still traumatized.
Although he has already been discharged from JOOTRH where he was hospitalized with nine gunshot wounds, the student is yet to recover.
According to Lilian, her son, who was a form four student at Bishop Abiero Secondary School in Kisumu, has been behaving strangely ever since they left the hospital.
“We left the hospital on Friday last week after Fidel had been treated, but now he’s been behaving strangely. He keeps shouting at me that we should leave because police are coming, and they might kill us the way they killed Elvis,” she stated.
Lilian was advised by friends to seek counselling for her and her son.
“I have been advised by a friend to take him for counselling at a facility in Tom Mboya estate,” he added.
The family of another victim, Fanuel Ochieng, who was shot in Kondele, said they laid him to rest on Saturday.
“The post-mortem results showed that he succumbed to a bullet wound. We are broken, and it is unfortunate how some people are demonstrating a lack of empathy,” said Perez Obado, an aunt to the deceased.
Yesterday, Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o condemned Koome and challenged him to visit JOOTRH to confirm the records of those killed.
“Mr Koome must stop mocking the families of those who were killed and maimed during the protests. He must stop politicizing grave security issues involving the killing of innocent civilians,” said Nyong’o.
Records in the county’s health department indicate that 107 patients were treated during the protests. Some 47 of them were treated for gunshot wounds.
An independent report released by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Amnesty International indicates that 24 people died in Kisumu and Kisii during the anti-government protests.
In Kisumu, about 16 people succumbed to their injuries.
IG Koome remarks contemptuous to families of police killing victims
Koome must avail names, photos of the corpses for Kenyans to believe, trust him
Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome should have formulated a more logical narrative in defence of police killings, instead of going public with a reasoning which only leaves him with an egg on his face.
The media, both local and international, have clearly captured police using live bullets on innocent protesters during anti-government protests called by Azimio Coalition, occasioning the deaths of more than 50 people and maiming hundreds of others.
Independent investigations by civil society organisations and human rights groups have similarly indicted the police for the same atrocities.
For Koome to then state without batting an eyelid that Azimio leaders hired corpses in collusion with morgue attendants to display to the media in a bid to justify police killings, amounts to dancing on the graves of the dead and utter apathy to the families of those police killed.
The best way for him to buttress his incoherent claim is to avail the names and photos of the corpses he is talking about and the morgues from which they were hired; and equally, identify the Azimio leaders involved in such heinous exercise. As IG, he has the investigative mechanisms to do this, for Kenyans to believe and trust him.
Koome’s office is an independent one established under Article 245 of the Constitution, hence the citizens expect him to be non-partisan in discharging his mandate. But what they are seeing instead is the complete opposite.
The IG is mandated to hold this office for a single term of four years, and can thereafter not be reappointed.
He and others who today are presiding over the killing and brutal maiming of innocent Kenyans callously must realise that they are likely, sooner or later, to be subjected before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer to their actions – even after leaving office.
This of course depends on the admissibility of the evidence currently being documented on the killings and related atrocities.
At the moment, Koome and ilk may assume they can trash the Constitution and act with impunity at the behest of the masters because they enjoy the reigns of power but should take cue from other similar regimes in Africa whose leaders have been subjected to the ICC for atrocities committed against their own citizens, even post their reigns.
He should be alive to the fact that the wheels of justice grind slowly and his actions will sooner or later catch up with him – even after leaving the office of which he will not be beholden forever.
When the ongoing exercise of documenting the killings and maimings is completed, the evidence will be presented to the ICC prosecutor who will then determine whether the cases constitute crimes against humanity, which on prima facie basis, should.
The Kenyans being killed and brutally maimed have been exercising their constitutional mandate to picket and demonstrate against injustices being done to them by the oppressive leadership.
The Constitution provides in Article 37 that every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.
Apart from violating Article 37, police action is equally in violation of Article 26 on the Right to Life as detailed in Chapter Four on Bill of Rights, which states: “Every person has a right to life; and that a person shall not be deprived of life intentionally, except to the extent authorised by the Constitution or other written law.”
History is replete with cases where ordinary people, constrained by injustices, have resorted to challenging those holding power in protest against unjust political, economic or social conditions.
Kenya, like many other African countries, is still struggling to deepen and institutionalise democracy and deal effectively with government impunity, particularly associated with the abuse of executive power and the violation of human rights.
Today, many of the rights and change we enjoy, have come about as a result of the protests and related struggles when the people have united against the dictates of oppressive leadership.
What the Kenya Kwanza regime has done and continues to do to Kenyans is a classical example of such injustices. It has forced the Finance Bill 2023 down the throats of Kenyans, subjecting the citizenry to punitive taxation amid high cost of living.
The people expected those to whom they donated their sovereign power to exercise it in a responsible manner that considers their well-being through the rule of law, equity and justice.
That is why they have opted to resist the oppressive leadership that has failed to realise the Constitution demands of it to be accountable to them (the people) – to whom all sovereign power belongs as stipulated in Chapter One.
Koome has failed Chapter Six on Leadership and Integrity which requires State officers to be objective and impartial in ensuring that their decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, and other improper motives. He is, therefore, not fit to hold such key public office.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
