2007 HAUNTING

The role of Administration Police in the 2007 General Election is at the heart of a campaign of threats and intimidation that have seen a deputy provincial commissioner report threats to his life.

Reports of the disappearance of Mr Oku Kaunya — who surfaced at a press conference on Saturday surrounded by top provincial security officials — has triggered fresh fears about the safety of potential witnesses for Kenya’s post-election violence case at the International Criminal Court.

Mr Kaunya was in charge of the Administration Police Training College (APTC) in December 2007 when a controversial training programme for 1,600 APs was carried out in the run up to the General Election.

The Waki report into the post-election violence said the training was designed to influence the outcome of elections in areas where President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity did not enjoy good support.

On Saturday, Mr Kaunya told journalists in Kakamega he had told police his life was in danger.

“Some of the threats are mentioning my tenure as head of the APTC but I do not want to divulge more information because it could jeopardise investigations,” he said.

Mr Kaunya spoke to journalists just a day after his wife, Mrs Millicent Kaunya, recorded a police statement reporting he had been missing for three days.

But on Saturday, Mr Kaunya said: “I want to dispel rumours and media reports that I have gone missing. I am on leave and I went to a place in Vihiga to visit a friend and there was poor mobile phone network that is why I have not been able to communicate with my family”.

He added: “I am safe and available and people should not worry about my security. It is true that I have received death threats but that is now up to the police to investigate. I have been given extra security and now I am comfortable.”

Unusually, Saturday’s press conference was communicated to journalists by officers from the intelligence services and not the provincial information office that coordinates the coverage of issues in the PC’s office.

Mr Kaunya appeared uneasy during the press briefing at which he arrived in the Western provincial commissioner Samuel Kilele’s car accompanied by half a dozen officials.

According to a close friend who sought anonymity, the administrator decided to “visit” Vihiga instead of travelling to Nairobi as scheduled in an attempt to shake off people he believed had been trailing him.

The friend said the administrator had also raised concerns that his calls were being tapped and he was no longer keen on using the gadgets.

Mr Kaunya told police in a statement he recorded earlier that APs had been trailing him in Kisumu and at his rural home in Teso district.

Mr Kaunya is one of the potential witnesses if the ICC pre-trial chamber judges give the go-ahead to chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to investigate the Kenya crisis.

As a key player at the AP training school, he might be expected to shed light on the controversial programme there that raised one of the many unanswered questions surrounding the 2007 election.

According to the Waki report, the AP training college was a central cog in the chain of events leading up to the crisis.

It said 1,600 officers were attached in the college for special training and were instructed to act as agents during polling.

“All officers deployed were dressed in plain clothes, easily identified as they were not from the local community and travelled in large groups by more than 30 chartered buses,” the report said. “In addition they received Sh21,000 each for their duties. The entire exercise was called off… after some officers were killed and many more injured by citizens.”

Mr Kaunya left the AP service following what was described as an “insignia clash” (row over emblems worn to signal seniority) with his boss, Kinuthia Mbugua. He was transferred to the National Defence College on study leave and redeployed to Nyanza province as a deputy PC.

On Saturday, Mr Mbugua said: “I’ve not received the facts and so I am not in a position to comment right now. It’s not an opportune time until I’ve heard and seen the facts.”

It has not been confirmed that Mr Kaunya might be a witness in an ICC investigation. But his case is the latest of reports of threats to the lives of those who have information concerning the killings in the wake of the crisis that followed the elections.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights is hosting at least three potential witnesses in safe houses within the country. Other witnesses are said to be abroad.

It is feared that some of those who had knowledge of the killings may have been killed.

Last December Father Jeremiah Roche, an Irish priest who served in Kipkelion, one of the areas worst hit by the violence, was killed. The murderers stripped him naked and stabbed him in the throat before taking off with his blood-stained clothes, a CD player and two mobile phones.

KNCHR vice-chairman Hassan Omar called on the government to urgently to take measures to stop the rising tide of threats.

“Witness protection is something which concerns the commission. Anybody is a potential witness including those serving in government. Unless officials act fast, there might be nobody to interview if the ICC allows an official investigation into Kenya.”

On Satuday, Mr Kaunya said he had left it to investigators to get to the bottom of the matter. He said he had given the Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer in Nyanza and the Teso District Criminal Intelligence Officer details he believed would aid investigations.

He insisted he had visited a friend during the three days he was out of touch, saying his host’s home in Vihiga was in a poor network area which explained his failure to communicate with his family.

Nyanza PC Francis Mutie said Mr Kaunya was on leave. Mr Mutie said that the deputy PC began leave on February 23 and is expected back before the end of March.

“He asked for a 15 day leave as from February 23 but later came and countersigned and changed it to 30 days leave,” the PC said.

He admitted that the deputy PC had requested more security but said he did not disclose to him why he had asked for his security detail to be beefed up.

“I talked to him last night (Friday) while in Sabatia after he met area DC one Mr Kiprono after news emerged of his missing,” Mr Mutie said.

The PC, however, declined to be drawn into claims by Mr Kaunya’s wife that her husband had gone missing after receiving death threats.

“Mr Kaunya is a senior government officer who cannot just disappear as he is in charge of 12 districts,” he said.

“He never told me at any point that his life was under threat as he had enough security officers and with such security no one can threaten you. We should not accept to be misled by rumours,” Mr Mutie told journalists in his office.

He went on: “We should not create mountains from anthills.” Nyanza PPO Njue Njagi said that investigations had been launched but declined to state how far they had gone with investigations saying that security matters cannot be discussed in the press.