Former Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro may be facing challenges with his nomination as Kenya’s envoy to Malaysia.
This cvame after the vetting committee overlooked on a report that had earlier been submitted by Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi seeking to hold Muhoro to account for the recent extra judicial killings that have however not been solved during his tenure. in office.
Muhoro, who is among President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nine nominees for ambassadorial appointments who were given a go ahead by the Defence and Foreign Relations committee.
Also approved were former State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu (United Kingdom), former SRC chair Sarah Serem (China), Lt Gen (rtd) Samuel Thuita (Israel), Lt Gen (rtd) Johnson Ondieki (Turkey), Nicholas Ogego Oginga (Saudi Arabia) and Chris Mburu (South Sudan).
The petition seemed to be a continuation of a long running duel between Ahmednasir and Muhoro that has resulted in a defamation suit.
In the petition filed in Parliament, Ahmednasir paints Muhoro as a corrupt man who headed an elimination squad within the police — claims he has made before.
According to Ahmednassir in his petition he said, “The applicant has acted with grave impunity and disregard to the rule of law; has utterly disregarded the provisions of the Constitution which will render him unsuitable to be appointed as an ambassador or fit to hold any public office,”
The senior counsel who has twice represented President Uhuru Kenyatta in petitions challenging his election claims that during his stint at the helm, Muhoro ran a shadowy operation within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations that spearheaded extra-judicial killings in Kenya.
He further added saying, “During his tenure as the Director of Criminal Investigations, he formed a special unit within the DCI that undertook extra-judicial killings in Kenya. He would give the final authority before his officers undertook such exercises, claimed the lawyer popularly known as Grand Mullah”
While appearing before the departmental committee on Defence and Foreign Relations chaired by Katoo Ole Metito last week, Muhoro denied all the allegations and accused Ahmednassir of habouring personal vendetta against him.
According to Muhoro, “Honourable chair, we live in a society where one is treated innocent until proven guilty. The person accusing me has never reported anything at the courts, he only operates on social media so his allegations are unsubstantiated.”
Yesterday Muhoro insisted that he was being accused falsely.
Muhoro further said that he was been accused falsely over the allegations put forward by the said Senior Council saying he should go to court could he have any evidence corncerning the allegations.
But in an astounding accusation, Ahmednassir claims ‘its a known fact’ that Muhoro authorised the brutal murder of Muslim clerics in Nairobi, North Eastern and at the Coast. He cities reports from rights groups, including Haki Africa, Muhuri Kenya and Amnesty International.
A 2016 report by Haki Africa, a Coast human rights group squarely blamed Kenya’s anti-terror police, a unit within the DCI, for eliminating at least 81 mainly Muslim terror suspects since 2012.
They include radical preacher Aboud Rogo, who was gunned down on August 2012, and his comrade Sheikh Abubakar Shariff “Makaburi”, felled two years later on 6 April 2014.
“All these events captured in the report were during the applicant’s [Muhoro] tenure and done under his watch,” the petition reads in part.
Ahmednasir however made no mention of other unresolved killings during Muhoro’s stint including that of Jacob Juma.
During the vetting, Muhoro was at pains to explain why he failed to conclusively bring to closure the murders of Juma, IEBC ICT manager Chris Musando and former Kabete MP George Muchai.
“You have been accused of many things. You start off with a huge baggage that will affect your work. Couldn’t it have been better you clear those issues including the ones in court before you take up a new assignment?” Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo asked.
The committee said it used academic qualifications, employment record, professional affiliations, potential conflict of interest, knowledge of the relevant subject as criteria for vetting the nominees.
It also looked at the overall suitability for the position, integrity and expectations.
With regard to Muhoro, the committee concluded that the matters raised by the petition were before court I and it was not the mandate of the committee to investigate the claims. At any rate, they said, the matter should have been reported to the Independent Police Oversight Authority.
The Committee said both the EACC and the Directoate of Criminal Investigations had given a clean bill of health to Muhoro.
But despite getting the nod of MPs, it appears Ahmednasir’s war with Muhoro is far from over. He has vowed to send the petition to the office of Prime Minister and Malaysian Foreign Minister.
“If parliament fails to consider the petition, I will file a suit,” he promised.
In the petition, Ahmednasir narrates how Muhoro allegedly corruptly overturned an investigation indicting some eight individuals in the Tatu City tussle.
He claimed Muhoro was to be paid Sh50 million and allocated 300 acres of land for turning the case against Ahmednassir’s clients.
Ahmednasir claims that after he reported the matter to the DPP in April, 2017, he received credible intelligence that Muhoro was planning to kill him.
“Indeed the applicant set up a five-member squad to carry out this execution against me,” Ahmednasir claims
“That according to the information I received, the applicant herein sought to execute me on two separate occasions, the first one being on 12March 2017 when he had four CID officers trail me from my meeting in Westlands with my clients to my home in Karen. The applicants through his agents also sought to have my phone tracked,” the petition reads.
He goes on: “Another attempt to execute me was made between 25to 31March 2017. During this period, I had traveled to Australia and Dubai and thus the said operation was not able to be conducted.”
But during his vetting, Muhoro laughed off the claims and said “he has never thought of anything like that”.
“I am from a very strong Christian background, so to speak,” he stated.
Muhoro said it was unfortunate people were allowed to malign public servants yet nobody had an iota of evidence linking him to the crimes.
“I believe in the rule of law. We opened an inquest for any case of enforced disappearance reported to us. We have taken some officers to court over killings,” he said, adding that some of the reported cases of enforced disappearances might not be real as the perceived victims could have crossed over to Somalia.
He claimed that Amednasir’s bitterness stems from his refusal to influence investigations in his favour.
“I have dealt with him in few cases, one involving property in Spring Valley and it didn’t go his way. Another one concerning Explico Insurance where there was a move to steal the company. Another is Nkuruman case. Finally, the one that broke the camel’s back was on Tatu city,” Muhoro said.
Muhoro was replaced as DCI by Uhuru early this year after serving for eight years. He joined the Police force in 1991