Kasipul MP Were joins long list of leaders killed in office

 

The shooting death of Kasipul MP Ong’ondo Were on Wednesday evening has brought back memories of lawmakers who were gunned down while in office and their cases were never resolved.

Were, a second-term MP was gunned down in Nairobi in what police described as a well-executed and premeditated attack. Kenya has in the last 60 years witnessed a series of high-profile killings executed by experienced hit men who seemed to have friends in high places.

Some prominent leaders who died in a similar way include Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya, JM Kariuki, George Kapten (Kwanza), Mugabe Were (Embakasi), Tony Ndilinge (Kilome), Stephen Achiya Echakara (Busia North), Enock Magara (South Mugirango), David Kimutai Too (Ainamoi) and George Muchai (Kabete).

Pinto was shot at close range on February 24 1965, at Parklands in Nairobi, in the driveway while waiting for the gate to be opened. He was with his daughter in his car at the time and was the first Kenyan politician to be assassinated after independence.

Three years later, Mboya, serving as Minister for Economic Planning and Development, was gunned down on 5 July 1969 at Government Road (now Moi Avenue), after visiting Chaani’s Pharmacy. Nahashon Isaac Njenga was convicted of murder and later hanged. Mboya was 39 years old.

The discovery of the remains of former Nyandarua MP JM Kariuki in Ngong Forest by a herd boy with his hands chopped off in 1975, eyes gorged out, face burnt with acid and left on an ant’s nest chilled the nation. The murder remains unresolved.

On May 27, 1985, an armed gang struck at the home of Gem MP Horrace Ongili Owiti in Siaya. They attacked him with machetes and batons, stabbed him with knives and carried his lifeless body into a nearby maize plantation. They did not steal anything. His car was intact.

The murder was preceded by violence targeting a bakery he owned in Siaya town, as well as several attacks on his political agents. One of them had been murdered the year before.

An investigation revealed a blood-curdling plan to eliminate a political opponent, and pointed at the immediate former area MP Otieno Ambala, who became a top suspect. The state said he had withdrawn large amounts of money in the days before the death, and had also met key suspects.

As the horrible saga unfolded, Ambala was arrested and charged with murder, along with six suspects. But after a few months in jail, he collapsed and died of a heart attack. Some people claimed he, too, was assassinated to shield the real killers.

On the night of January 15, 1987, Busia North MP Stephen Achiya Echakara was attacked by a gang near Carnivore restaurant in Nairobi and he died ten days later from injuries suffered in the attack.

On Christmas Day of 1999, Kwanza MP George Kapten died in his bed and people claimed he had been assassinated. On August 2, 2001, Kilome residents woke up to sad news of the shooting of their MP, Tony Ndilinge, over allegations of a love triangle.

On Jamhuri Day, December 12, 1972, Ronald Ngala, a Cabinet minister, left Nairobi for his home at the Coast in an official government vehicle. That evening, the Voice of Kenya (VoK), carried a bulletin that the minister had been involved in a road accident and was admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital. The state broadcaster later changed tune to say he had been travelling from Nairobi to the Coast and not the other way round.

Non-state media - East African Standard and Nation newspapers - reported that the minister had been admitted to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit with head and chest injuries sustained during the accident. He died in mysterious circumstances and the case has never been resolved.