Mutua denies involvement with Oscar Foundation murders » Capital News
Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 4 – Labour Cabinet Secretary nominee Alfred Mutua has denied any involvement in the murders of Oscar Foundation executive director Oscar King’ara and his colleague Paul Oulu, which took place on March 5, 2009.
Mutua faced scrutiny after accusing the Oscar Foundation, which provides free legal aid clinics for the poor, of assisting the Mungiki criminal gang.
Just hours after his statement, the two human rights activists were assassinated at close range in their car by gunmen on Statehouse Road.
“We had a security meeting in the morning, and I want this to go on record. It was led by the Head of Public Service, and a statement was formulated,” Mutua stated.
“The president was briefed, and I issued the statement because the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was preparing a document to have them arrested and taken to court,” Mutua told Members of Parliament during his vetting.
The two activists had provided evidence to a senior UN investigator regarding execution-style murders allegedly carried out by police. Despite public outcry from several human rights organizations, police denied any involvement and attributed the killings to internal rivalry.
Mutua insisted that he had no knowledge of the grievous assassination incident, emphasizing that he was merely performing his duties as the government spokesperson by informing the public about the investigation linked to the Oscar Foundation.
“Later on, we heard about the murder or the shooting of the people right outside the Parliament building, and it was quite unfortunate because we had nothing to do with it. I was doing my job as agreed in a proper government system,” he said.
The Oscar Foundation gained prominence due to its investigations into police abuses. Since 2007, it has reported 6,452 “enforced disappearances” by police and 1,721 extrajudicial killings.
The majority of those killed were believed to be members of the Mungiki gang, which was involved in retaliatory attacks during the post-election violence.
Founded in 1998, the Oscar Foundation has published detailed findings on police killings to two parliamentary committees and also briefed the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions during his 10-day investigation into security force abuses in the country.
Oulu and Kingara were among the civil society members with whom Rapporteur Philip Alston met during his February 2009 visit to Kenya to investigate rampant extrajudicial killings by death squads within the security system and the police.
On New Year’s Day 2009, the Oscar Foundation wrote a letter to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, calling for investigations into suspected state-sponsored extrajudicial killings targeting alleged members of the Mungiki.
Mungiki has been accused of enforcing a parallel taxation regime in the public transport sector in Nairobi and Central Kenya, as well as running a shakedown racket in Nairobi’s informal settlements, where it demanded payment in exchange for the protection of businesses.
About The Author
