Let's not bury Jirongo until questions around his death have been answered

Asking that Cyrus Jirongo's burial be put off till claims that he was assassinated are conclusively resolved sounds like a lost cause now. All of us, government included, going by their silence on questions raised, agree that credible issues have been raised about the death of the businessman and political operative.

In a sense the hurry to burry him expresses our determination to get his children to carry the psychological burden of never conclusively knowing the circumstances that led to their father's death. This load will be carried by us into eternity from generation to generation. Note that this does not happen without the possibility of a price.

Recent Revelations show that late Abeid Karume, President of Zanzibar after the 1964 revolution, married a woman who was wife to a man he had killed. He thought all was good since the man's children were young and lacked comprehension of what happened. He absorbed the son of the man he had killed into his presidential security being as a step son. After specialised training in Russia, the boy later avenged his father's death by shooting Karume to death. The boy's spirit breached Kenya's convention.

The people of yore who said 'Out of sight, out of mind" may have foreseen Kenya's assassinations. A casual examination of political and suspicious deaths confirm that the "let us move on" spirit repeatedly subdues the "wait till we understand" wisdom.

Pio Gama Pinto launched this theme in Kenya's history in 1964 when he was gunned down. Evidently, the occasion of his burial coincided with the occurrence of a slow puncture that deflated the urge to track his killers.  Tom Mboya's day light assassination followed. His dramatic funeral also dramatized the sinking into oblivion of the drive for justice since the real architects were left untouched.

Oh! People, the grave is the best ally of those who kill our heroes in Kenya and the unsurmountable roadblock to investigations for those with the urge to seek justice. Once you are buried, the murderers know it's game over. I can swear that the memories of the people of Kenya were made at 6pm when God was tired.

Burial is usually a double event where the dead and our memories and questions of how they died are lowered six feet under. That is Kenya for you, the land where two entities are buried on burial day: those who were killed and the memories of those who claim to have loved them.

Can Jirongo help us fight his assassins if at all?

Yes. That is what Wamwere - Koigi’s father did for his son. Koigi wa Wamwere was a freedom fighter who was detained by Kenyatta at 24 and repeatedly jailed by the succeeding administration. While he was in custody, Koigi's father died. His wife Wangu Wamwere appealed to the government to free her son so that he could attend the burial of his father but this "extraordinary" request was denied by the then government.

She decided that her husband was not going to be buried in the absence of their first born son and so the body stayed in the morgue. This move sent the nation into a frenzy.

Demonstrations took place from time to time demanding for the release of Koigi. Whenever his matter came up for hearing in court, the government deployed lorries of policemen to manage crowds that gathered in solidarity. People wept when they saw Wamwere's widow, Wangu. Clearly the trigger for enthusiasm on the part of the public was Wamwere’s body in the morgue.

Eventually, the government released the son in 1992 to attend the burial ceremony that was attended by the entire opposition.

In death, Wamwere contributed to the release of his son.

Jirongo, too could help us in the investigations of his death before he is buried. His spirit could refuse ongoing plans for burial and decide to stay in the morgue until the killers are named by name.

Is Jirongo's death suspicious? Well, yes.

I travelled to the Eagal petrol station from which he died at Karai near Naivasha town. I asked a Somali pump attendant at the station whether he was on duty that day and he said he was.

"How was it bro?" I Inquired.

"A Mercedes Benz came into the petrol station and drove out hurriedly…. He turned quickly back to the highway and then the accident happened " He said.

I asked him whether he went there to check.

"I was on duty so I couldn't leave the pump unattended".

At 3 am?  I was certain he had lied. The scene of crime was 30 meters away. The fellow may have been warned by whoever hence the fear?

Any useful lessons from the past? When the Nyeri Governor died in a road accident at Kabati along the Nairobi – Thika highway, the police claimed that it was as a result of a tire burst. An Italian company that manufactured the tires in question sent experts to verify.

Just like the Ngong hyenas declared JM Kariuki innocent and refused to eat his body, so did expert opinion from the tire manufacturer declare the tires that were accused of killing the Nyeri Governor innocent.

The police had lied or just chose not to dig and ask serious questions.

Why not invite Mercedes Benz experts from Germany to assess the impact of the bus on Jirongo's vehicle. That will confirm whether the accident theory is tenable. This assessment could be corroborated by the injuries that Jirongo suffered. Do they correspond the alleged collision impact?

For this reason alone, we need to preserve Jirongo in the morgue till we are through with investigations.

This is comparable to what the British did to Dr Robert Ouko's body. His skull was taken away to a fridge in London for further investigations before his burial. To the best of my knowledge, the skull is still in London.

When Bishop Alexander Muge was promised death by the Busia South Member of Parliament garullous Peter Okondo, an accident similar to what befell Jirongo happened at Kipkaren bridge along Eldoret-Bungoma highway.

Out of four passengers, Muge was the only one who died.

I was in Naivasha prison with the driver of the Lorry that killed Alexander Muge.

The "god" of Bishop Alexander Muge's killers made sure that the driver did not leave prison. He died while serving his 7 year sentence. The Lorry he drove was coincidentally associated with the government - it was carrying school milk for children under the ‘school milk program’. 

What a coincidence? Only the man promised death died. Revelations by a retired intelligence officer have since pointed at the fact that after the accident, state operatives masquerading as rescuers, walked to the scene, found  Muge alive and killed him using metal bars. That was in 1990.

Nearly ten years earlier in 1973 George Morara a member of parliament for West Mugirango had been killed by a police vehicle along the Kakamega – Kisumu road.  He had travelled home after addressing a press conference at parliament buildings, upon returning from a working trip to Zambia where he claimed to have seen the man said to have killed Tom Mboya. Morara and other MPs gave the Jomo Kenyatta government 48 hours to produce Nahashon Njenga.

Fast forward to 1990, a keen government critic Alexander Muge is killed by a lorry that used to carry school milk. And now thirty-five years later another critic of government Cyrus Jirongo is killed by a bus whose owner has close links with powerful men in the current ruling party.

Is this not a clear pattern speaking for itself?

We need Jirongo's body around to arrive at a conclusive evaluation of the accident in line with the Mercedes Benz expert opinion.

Prominent people dying in accidents under suspicious circumstances have been many in the country’s history.

After the 1971 alleged coup plot was unearthed, then Chief Justice Kitili Mwendwa, a suspect in the attempted military takeover plot that was nailed before it matured, was to later die in a suspicious accident.

There have been gaps in thoroughness when it comes to investigations.  In all best practices air transport accidents in the world have always been subjected to the relevant plane manufacturers scientific assessment.  Yet General Ogola's "accident" investigation avoided this process.

Leaders used the tragedy to strike deals while others did not care. Hon Kalonzo Musyoka has always insisted that General Ogala's helicopter was brought down.

The 2011 Prof George Saitoti's death in a helicopter has had no report from the manufacturer of the plane. If it exists then it lies in government’s secret shelf.

My appeal to Kenyans is that going forward, no burial of a prominent personalities should be conducted before justice is done.

As for those who perpetually rush to obliterate assassination theories, let them note that it took years before it was established beyond reasonable doubt that  Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of slow poison by the Mossad.