HOW KILONZO WAS KILLED

On Wednesday July 30, 1997 Mr Phillip Kilonzo, a retired former Police Commissioner who was at the centre of the investigation into Dr Robert Ouko’s assassination seven years earlier, was driven into his favourite pub in Matuu.

He asked that half-a-kilo of meat be prepared for him, then sat down to sip his favourite drink — White Cap. Halfway through his glass, he is called out to receive a heifer given to him as a gift by a local councillor.

When he came back to his seat and took a sip from his glass, he exclaimed; "This beer tastes different. What have you done to it?"

Those were his last words…minutes later he was dead, another statistic on the killer trail that followed witnesses and investigators of Ouko’s murder, estimated to be about 100 today.

They include former powerful Permanent Secretary Hezekiah Oyugi; former head of Pan-African Group who died hours before appearing before the Ouko Commission; Oidho Agalo, the farmhand and Otieno Gor who were among the people who saw the Minister just hours before he disappeared; Martin Ochanda was attached to the Kisumu Special Branch office and was a friend of Dr Ouko...James Eric Onyango, a relative and confidant of the late Minister, and who was among the people Dr Ouko talked to on the telephone on the night he disappeared; Nehemiah Shikuku Obati the Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police who spearheaded the arrest and interrogation of the Ouko murder chief suspects, among them Mr Nicholas Biwott, who was briefly arrested. Thirteen years later, the family has not seen the post-mortem examination reports and finding of toxicology texts by the Government Chemist of what was left of Kilonzo’s beer ...and for a top cop, no statements taken from potential witnesses, no word on who wanted him dead ...just silence.

But this month The Standard walked down what to others could be the beaten path.

Speaking to the forlorn family of the former top cop, the sheer horror of talking about Ouko’s murder is shocking. Few have the courage to be quoted, others wish it was forgotten and chapter closed, not because they do not feel the pain, but for fear they could be next. For, they believe, Ouko killers are still on the prowl.

Not in touch

Their dilemma reminds one of that of Mr John Troon, the Scotland Yard detective, who led the investigations, who when a few years ago he was asked if he had been in touch with Dr Ouko’s family, he responded: "I have not been in touch with Dr Ouko’s family since leaving Kenya. This is due to the issue of their safety, as I do believe they may be targeted by associates of the suspects if there was communication between myself and any member of the family."

Already the then Chief Pathologist Dr Jason Kaviti and then CID director had conceded the ‘suicide theory’ was manufactured by powerful personalities in Government then.

"We were told not to worry because the post-mortem examination report would be availed to us. Thirteen years later, I have not seen this report. I do not know what killed my brother but I am sure of one thing. My brother did not die from old age or natural cause," says his elder brother James Ngwiri Kilonzo.

He added: "Kilonzo died after consuming the contents of the first beer from the crate," adding that even after samples of the beer, the glass were submitted to the Government Chemist for analysis, the outcome was never communicated to the family.