Killed former Kitui CID boss Zebedayo Maina had been poisoned before he was transferred to Kitui, his colleagues have revealed.
“All along Maina told us of how his life was in danger and even at the time of his poisoning blamed it on his seniors working in cohorts with criminals,” a police officer said yesterday.
Maina was poisoned at a Bungoma hotel on February 22 and was admitted at the St Domiano Hosipital in Bungoma. He was later airlifted to Nairobi for specialised treatment.
He told reporters in his Bungoma hospital bed: “When you are fighting crime you create so many enemies some of whom are your bosses."
He pleaded with reporters not to make public that he had been admitted at the hospital.
His colleagues said he had earlier declined a transfer to Samburu before accepting the Kitui move.
The death on August 4 means he takes to the grave the operations of the dreaded Kwekwe Squad responsible for the extrajudicial executions of about 3,000 Mungiki and the murders of human rights activists.
Maina joined the police in 1985 as a constable, but quickly rose through the ranks because he was good at carrying out orders.
The Kwekwe squad was formed in July 2006 at the peak of the gruesome Mungiki be-headings and extortion rackets.
The squad was formed days after former President Kibaki warned Mungiki following the murder of a chief and an assistant chief in his Othaya turf.
"Don’t think you will kill and get away with it. You will be caught and be killed because you cannot compete with us," warned Kibaki. Only days later they raided the late John Michuki's home in Murang'a.
Two months before Kwekwe was formed, Mungiki had killed 11 policemen and stolen their guns.
Kwekwe were free to use any means to get rid of the Mungiki control of protection rackets in swathes of the city, Central Kenya and the Rift Valley.
The initial team comprised of 14 carefully selected officers from the CID commended from Nairobi but with the leeway to carry out operations in the city, Rift Valley and Central provinces. The squad was largely made up of Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
Maina, who had for two decades worked as a CID officer in Embu, Thika and Nyeri, was transferred to Nairobi in 2003 when the Mungiki extortion of matatu operators and other protection rackets were coming into their own.
He quickly endeared himself to his bosses with his ruthless methods to execute carjackers and robbers in the city and environs.
Maina, who had just been posted to to the Buru Buru CID offices, was seconded to the Provincial CID offices and was made head in charge of a special squad.
He is reported to have executed bank robber Simon Matheri Ikere on February 28, 2007 in Mlolongo. Matheri, wanted for a string of bank robberies and carjackings, reportedly died from a single gunshot on the head.
But Maina reportedly instructed the rest of his men to pump more bullets into the body to create an impression he had died in a hail of bullets.
When the Kwekwe squad was formed, Maina became the obvious choice as leader.
The Prof Philip Alston report accused Kwekwe’s death squads of killing 8,000 Kikuyu youths during the operation.
Asked about the operation at the time, then police spokesman Eric Kiraithe was unapologetic about the manner the squad was dealing with suspected sect members.
“It’s not like you were executing people who were innocent. The Mungiki were committing many murders viciously. You couldn’t get a single person to testify. The operation lasted three months, and in my opinion it was highly successful,” Kiraithe said.
The squad was disbanded in 2008 after a public outcry but sources said the squad only changed its name to Eagle Squad with the same faces except for a few changes. It has also been known to adopt new names such as Sierra among others.
Members of the squad from other communities were re-deployed to other units leaving the core members from the Meru, Kikuyu and Embu communities.
The squad, under Maina, was linked to the March 5, 2009 extrajudicial killings of human rights activist Oscar King'ara and GP Oulu both shot dead in a car on State House road.
King'ara, it is believed, was killed because he was suspected to be the Mungiki treasurer and had Sh18 million of Mungiki cash. Oulu's death was collateral damage. He was at the wrong place and the wrong time. Their killers are yet to be found.
The June 26, 2007 abduction and disappearance of another human rights activist Kimani Ruo Kimani moments after he was acquitted by a Nairobi law court is also attributed to the squad. Kimani's body has never been found and new evidence by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights details how the squad carried out the abduction, torture and subsequent murder of Kimani who was known the sect's coordinator.
Coincidentally, their deaths came on the same day that UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston released a report in which he demanded Kwekwe disbanded. Then Police Commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali vehemently denied the existence of the squad.
Maina and his team were also responsible for the shooting death of five unarmed people — four men and one woman—at Nairobi's Kisumu Ndogo on November 12,2007. Maina and his team, wearing masks, ambushed the five — Hassan Mohamed, Robert Kariuki, Ibrahim Daudi, Jackline Akinyi and Rama Amini—who were in a tuk tuk. They were all shot dead after being ordered to lie face down.
In April 18,2011, the court ordered that Maina and his officers be charged with the murders, but nothing had been done by the time he was shot dead last week.
The abduction and murder of former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga's wife Virginia Nyakio and her driver-cum-bodyguard, George Ndungu Wagacha in February 2007; the daylight execution of sect spokesman Gitau Njuguna in Nairobi's Luthuli Avenue on November 5, 2009 are just a few of the cold-blooded killings linked to Maina.
Maina and his team were handed promotions and cash rewards. They chose where they were deployed, making the unit the envy of many.
Maina’s work got both praise and condemnation from his superiors. Those who commended him attributed his success to his network of informers and infiltration of the criminal gangs.
They also attributed it to his discipline and "sense of fair play" when it came to dealing with criminals.
However, there are many others who regard Maina as a killing machine who should have been arrested and prosecuted.
The new police bosses were uncomfortable and opted to transfer him to Bungoma as deputy CID chief.
Maina was looking forward to working in his new posting as it meant he was close to his home and could attend to one of his children who requires frequent medical attention.
However, the fact that five former Kwekwe squad members have died in unclear circumstances in recent years lend credence to his fears.
Other former Kwekwe squad members who have died include Maina's former driver George Kiriinya who was executed outside a safe house in Westlands where he had been hidden after he started revealing the names of those involved in the extrajudicial killings and the post election violence.
Richard Katola, is now disabled after suffering a stroke. Family members believe he was poisoned by an unkown person who wanted him dead. Another officer, Kiriinya, who confessed he had killed more than 60 Mungiki members, was also shot and killed in unclear circumstances
Another Kwekwe squad officer who was shot just like Maina, is Gitahi. He was shot and killed by a “stray” bullet in Kiambu in an operation to kill Mungiki members that went terribly wrong. His wife would be killed a year later by unknown people.
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