DETAILS …Robert ALAI speaks UP and gives you HIS SIDE – (Part 1)

The Kenyan DAILY POSTEditor's Choice02:16

A lot of questions have been raised about what transpired between blogger Robert Alai and government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua. 

Well this is exactly what happened. (here is an editorial from Alai himself – Techmtaa)

Apart from being a tech blogger in Kenya, I also comment on issues of social justice and governance. I am so passionately Kenyan that some of my friends whom I worked with outside the country used to call me as the leader of the Kenyan mafia. I follow every issue in this country with a keen eye. I don’t develop a class attitude and say that because something happened to someone in Kibera, Mukuru or K’Obong’o village then I cannot comment about it because it is just below my class. That is just me and I am not looking to change it anytime soon.

Just as other issues I follow closely, I have been following the case of the Shelter Afrique boss, Allassane Ba, and Mrs Karen Kandie. Allassane Ba happens to be a Mauritanian national head of the Shelter Afrique. He is alleged to have assaulted Mrs Karen Kandie who is married to the CCK Director of HR, Mr Juma Kandie. After the alleged assault, Mrs Kandie tried so hard to have Mr Ba arrested and arraigned in court. After trying for several days without much success, they one time managed to have Mr Ba arrested and locked up at Capital Hill police station in Nairobi. Before arresting Mr Ba, Mrs Kandie had to get herself checked by the only police doctor in Nairobi province who is based at Nairobi Area. The search for the authentication of the Police doctor did not come easily. It was a struggle which only those who have gone through get to fully

So to cut the long story short, Mrs Kandie got the government doctor’s approval that she had a serious case which could sustain an assault case against Mr Ba. She proceeded to have Mr Ba arrested. The arrest saw the Western African staff members of Shelter Afrique drive in a convoy of 5 cars to Capital Hill Police station where they started to protest at the gate of the facility. They camped at the facility and with connections with the Kenyan government officials, they managed to get through to the commissioner of police, Mr Mathew Iteere, and the government spokesman, Dr Alfred Mutua, who both talked and got to issue orders to the OCPD Kilimani through Nairobi PPO, Anthony Kibuchi, that Mr Allassane Ba be immediately released. The Occurence Book (OB) recording at the Capital Police station is marked as Number 24/28/6/2012.

Immediately they realised that Mr Ba had been released, Mrs Kandie’s family reached out to all top Kenyan government officials they could reach to protest the release. In that course to you heard the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sometime say that Mr Allassane Ba has no diplomatic immunity before later changing the story. The family then reached to the Prime Minister who then ordered that Mr Allassane Ba be either arrested or deported. The order has never been effected. The people blocking the arrest are said to be the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s PS, Thuita Mwangi, Mr Iteere and Dr Alfred Mutua together with other Kenyan officials in the diplomatic community circles. It is a deep cover-up which you can only understand when you get full details and proof of the cover-up.

So with this information and backed by documents, I got to call Dr Alfred Mutua to ask him what really happened and if it was true that he is part of the group of top government officials who have been blocking the arrest of Mr Ba. I made the call at around 13:30 hours on Thursday August 16th. On receiving my call and after hearing my question, Dr Mutua told me, “Alai, we know that you are some activists and we don’t appreciate activism. We will deal with you.” I told Alfred to answer my question if he may because my call was not to diisplay activism but to get to the bottom of an issue. He said he does not deal with activists. I then asked him if he can remember that the last time he threatened some people that he would deal with them, they were found dead the next day (GPO Oulu and Oscar King’ara). Alfred got mad, said, “STUPID” then ended the call abruptly. I was surprised and after few minutes decided to inform the Police Spokesman and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Within a few hours, I received a call from a Mr Rutere who said he is from the Provincial CID headquarters. He informed me that I need to report to his office immediately. I told him that the earliest I could go to his office is on Tuesday or Wednesday 21st and 22nd respectively. Mr Rutere told me that he will use other methods to get to me and have me arrested. I told him that I really don’t take threats kindly and I can only go to his office after the IDD celebrations. I knew that the police are looking for me because of the altercation with Alfred Mutua. If I went to see them on Friday, I would have stayed till Tuesday 21st in custody. Immediately after the call, I got two phone calls from people who did not speak to me. I used other means to get to know who they are and called them back to ask them if they work with the CID. They both said yes they work at the CID but the call was just a mistake. I then realised that someone was tracking my movements using my phone. I have gone through the tracking of suspects with the CID while investigating for my phone recovery story with the CID.

So I switched off my phones and stayed off radar the whole weekend but I continued to tweet and intermittently switch on my phone. I then went to see the CID on Tuesday at around mid-day with my lawyer. We found other officers but not Mr Rutere. So I got other officers who were assigned to the case. The most surprising confession from different officers who worked on the case is that they knew where I was, who I was talking to and what I was saying. They told me, “didn’t you tell ……….I got to realise that though it is known that the Kenya Police has been using its powers to track individuals through mobile phones, it is now even listening to conversations. The saddest part off all these is that they are doing it without a single legal backing or order.

I first got worried about the police surveillance when one junior CID officer who is a great friend to me and works in Nairobi called me sometime in 2011. We were to meet and I was busy elsewhere to I decided to say I am in shags (the village). After few minutes of the end of the call, the CID officer SMSed me to tell me that I am in such-and-such a place. I really got worried because here we were friends and I did not have a police case but someone was able to get to know very private details about my phone.

If you want to get more of this story stay with the DAILY POST