why ambassador bethuel kiplagat should quit for kenya to attain ...

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WHY AMBASSADOR BETHUEL KIPLAGAT SHOULD QUIT FOR 

KENYA TO ATTAIN TRUTH JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION 

Feb 4th, 2010 by Mars Group Kenya 

Unfortunately, just as it is beginning its important work it is obvious that the Kenyan 

Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission is suffering a real crisis of public 

confidence because of some of its Commissioners’ antecedents, and because we are 

arguing Parliament dropped the ball in the vetting and confirmation process. This crisis 

will affect Kenyans’ belief in transitional justice and turn many into cynics. It is time to 

recognise that as Freeman and Hayner of the International Center for Transitional Justice 

wrote “perhaps more than any other single factor, the persons selected to manage a truth 

commission will determine its ultimate success or failure.” 

Bethuel Kiplagat, the Chairman, and his fellow Commissioners of the Truth Justice and 

Reconciliation Commission are losing public trust in important quarters. Several 

prominent victims of past human rights violations and organised groups have raised issue 

with the composition of the Kenyan Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Some 

have gone to court. The first sessions of the Truth Commission have been disrupted on 

two occasions this past week. Other prominent victims have vowed never to appear 

before the Truth Commission as presently constituted. How will the Truth be known in 

such an environment? How will we get to Justice and Reconciliation? 

Protest against its composition erupted even before the Truth Commission was sworn in. 

The Chairman Mr. Kiplagat was even constrained to go on television before being sworn 

in to mount a defence to the accusations against him. When the constitution of a Truth 

Commission is as controversial as that of the Kenyan Truth Justice and Reconciliation 

Commission, it is logical to look back at how the Commissioners were appointed. As is 

typical in Kenya what should be a simple exercise of looking at the nomination process is 

easier said than done because the Report of the Parliamentary Committee which approved 

the final shortlist from which President Kibaki chose the Truth Commissioners is not a 

public document. It is not available for example on Parliament’s website. The 

proceedings of the Selection Panel which gave Parliament names to look at were not 

conducted in, nor have they been made, public. So Kenyans have to take at face value 

what they are being told reportedly – that the process was open and consultative. Or 

maybe they don’t. 

Whereas defenders of the Truth Commission membership (including the Minister for 

Justice Mutula Kilonzo and Ababu Namwamba) say that the appointment followed a 

consultative process, presumably at the level of the statutory selection panel, the Hansard 

of Parliament shows that Kenyan Members of Parliament didn’t spend more than a few 

minutes considering the report on the nominees to this important Agenda 4 institution. 

What transpired in Parliament that day comprised of superficial assessment of the report 

and generalised praise for every name proposed.This cursory vetting by Parliament 

www.marsgroupkenya.org 1


explains why Bethuel Kiplagat’s Commission now finds itself attacked for some of its 

members’ past roles in the subject matter they will be taking evidence from Kenyans on. 

It’s a bad start for a process that was never likely to succeed in achieving truth, justice 

and reconciliation. Such forms of transitional justice are usually successful after regime 

changes and new democratic dispenstions. It is never wise to place transitional justice 

institutions in the hands of members of the ancien regime. It was always going to be 

difficult, but surely not impossible, to find Kenyans of sufficient credibility and stature 

who could serve as Commissioners of a credible unchallengeable Truth Commission. It 

was always going to be easier to ignore the instinct for self-interest, self-preservation and 

the temptation to cover-up human rights violations. But the easy way, as in this Kenyan 

case, often becomes the rigged or the foolhardy path. The persons who selected 

Ambassador Kiplagat as Chairman of the Truth Commission presumably knew what they 

were doing but history will always demonstrate that ancien regime actors do not make the 

best transitional justice mid-wives. Whatever their reasons, personal or ideological, those 

who appointed the Kenyan Truth Commission have damaged the prospects of the 

Commission’s success terminally. 

We go on record to say that we are concerned about the credibility deficit of the 

Chairman and a couple of other commissioners of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation 

Commission. The situation is deteriorating to the extent that even television straw polls 

now show that no sensible Kenyan is likely to believe in Truth, Justice or Reconciliation 

delivered by processes such as the Truth Commission headed by a retired public officer, 

whose career apex coincides with the height of gross human rights violations, and who 

spent this part of his career publicly denying that such violations were occurring. 

Ambassador Kiplagat is known for his diplomatic sense. Surely he can see that ‘toughing 

this one out’ is not an option? Gentlemen resign when their ability to deliver is 

questioned by the intended beneficiaries of their work. This is not an admission. It is 

recognizing that the point of the Truth Commission is to heal victims; to restore their 

dignity not to irritate them; definitely not to cause any Kenyan victim or otherwise 

unnecessary agitation. The healing work of the Commission is not severable. Just 

because not every single category of victim is complaining doesn’t mean your mandate is 

sound. Don’t demand that a tribunal be constituted against you under section 17 of the 

Truth Justice Reconciliation Act. Do the right thing Ambassador Kiplagat. Quit for 

Kenya. 

We think that Parliament should, and really could, have done more enquiring for 

Kenyans. It could have, and should have delayed its adjournment in late June for at least 

a week to show Kenyans they were serious about who would sit on the Truth 

Commission. This was, after all, the very last business of the entire parliamentary session 

and the key work MPs were required to do was to ensure implementation of the letter and 

the spirit of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Act 2008 and make it possible to 

provide a free and reconciliatory forum to enable all interested victims and Kenyans 

generally to deal with past injustices. Just how inadequate the prior scrutiny of the 

members of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission was, is demonstrated by 

this complete record of the debate that preceded the appointment of the Kenyan Truth 



Justice and Reconciliation Commission last year. It doesn’t inspire confidence in 

Parliament as a vetting institution. Had there been a full debate in Parliament would 

Kenya have a more credible version of a Truth Commission? We think it would. 

———— 

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 

OFFICIAL REPORT 

Thursday, 25th June, 2009 

The House met at 2.30 p.m. 

[Mr. Speaker in the Chair] 

Page 66 

MOTION 

ADOPTION OF REPORT ON NOMINATION OF COMMISSIONERS TO THE 

TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION 

Mr. Abdikadir: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion:- 

THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Departmental Committee on 

Justice and Legal Affairs on the Nomination of Commissioners to the Truth, 

Justice and Reconciliation Commission laid on the Table of the House on 

Thursday, May, 28, 2009. 

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Act, 2008 is an Act of 

Parliament to provide for the establishment of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation 

Commission and for connected purposes. Vide Part II of the Act, the establishment, 

powers and functions of the Commission are set out. The membership of the Commission 

is stipulated in the provisions of Section 10. 

The mandate of the Committee was to nominate nine persons for appointment to the 

Commission pursuant to the provisions of the Act. The Act, indeed, provides for a 

selection panel made up of nine members, including those listed in the Report. The 

Committee received the Report from the Selection Panel which they did after advertising 

and interviewing numerous people who intended to serve in this Commission. The 

Committee observed that in accordance with the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation 

Commission Act, the Selection Panel had invited applications from persons to be 



nominated as Commissioners. It considered the applications, ranked them and provided 

comments regarding each of the finalists to the Kenya National Assembly. 

In accordance with the law, the Selection Panel sent a list of 15 qualified Kenyans. In 

keeping with the provisions of the law, the Committee selected nine persons for 

nomination, taking into consideration the requirements as set out under the provisions. 

My Committee thereafter, resolved to nominate the following for appointment as 

Commissioners:- 

(1) Amb. Bethuel Kiplagat, MBS, 

(2) Mr. Thomas Letangule, 

(3) Miss Margaret Chava, 

(4) Mr. Tom Ojienda, 

(5) Rev. Dr. Timothy Njoya, 

(6) Miss Betty Murungi, 

(7) Mr. Abubakar Zein, 

(8) Miss Tekla Namachanja, 

(9) Maj-Gen. (Rtd.) Ahmed Sheikh. 

Mr. Deputy Speaker., Sir, the Committee further noted the names in the minutes 

forwarded by the Eminent African Personalities as follows:- 

(1) Miss Gertrude Chawatama from Zambia, 

(2) Mr. Berhanu Dinka from Ethiopia, 

(3) Mr. Ronald Sly from the United States of America (USA). 

It is, therefore, the recommendation of the Committee that the people mentioned above 

be, indeed, nominated to be Commissioners to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation 

Commission (TJRC). The law requires that the names, once approved, be sent to the 

President, and the President will pick six out of the nine nominees, if approved by this 

House. 

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on behalf of the Members of the Departmental Committee on 

Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, I wish to present to the House the Report of 

the Committee and the names of the nine qualified candidates, and the names of the three 



nominees nominated by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities for further 

consideration and subsequent adoption by the House. 

With those remarks, I beg to move and ask Mr. Njoroge Baiya to second the Motion. 

Mr. Baiya: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I can confirm that this Report has received full 

deliberation of the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal 

Affairs, and that the whole process was as explained by the Chairman. We are very clear 

that if this team receives the approval of the House, and also the approval of the 

President, it will deliver to the expectations of Kenyans. 

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to second. 

(Question proposed) 

The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs (Mr. M. 

Kilonzo): Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for 

giving me this chance to, first of all, congratulate the Committee and all its Members. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Selection Panel and the 

Serena Team as well as the National Accord Implementation Committee for the work that 

has been put into this process of national healing. 

These proposed Commissioners are very important. I want to assure the House that my 

Ministry will go out of its way to ensure that we make it possible for them to do the work 

that they are expected to do as expeditiously as possible, for purposes of national healing. 

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a very special year for this country, when we are 

grappling with very many issues, including Agenda Four, and above all, a new 

constitutional order. I beg to support this Motion and urge hon. Members to support it 

because it will go a long way towards the realization of this country of the nationhood 

that it so desperately needs. 

I beg to support. 

The Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development (Mr. Githae): Thank you, Mr. 

Deputy Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. I stand here to support this Motion that we 

should approve these names. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the committee for a 

job well done. I wish to thank the selection panel which was composed of various 

stakeholders; that is, FIDA, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), 

Law Society of Kenya(LSK), Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), SUPKEM, Hindu 

Council of Kenya, COTU and Kenya Medical Association, for a job well done. 

I have looked at the names of the proposed commissioners. I have no doubt that Amb. 

Bethwel Kiplagat, Mr. Thomas, Letangule, Margaret Shava, Tom Ojienda, Rev. Timothy 

Njoya, Ms. Betty Murungi, Abubakar Zein, Ms. Tekla Namachanja and Maj-Gen. Rtd 



Ahmed Sheikh, will do a good job. Even the people appointed by the panel of eminent 

persons, these are: Getrude Chawatamu from Zambia, Mr. BerhanuDinka from Ethiopia 

and Mr. Ronald Sly from the United States of America, will do a good job. 

This Commission should have been appointed yesterday, so that it can go into all these 

causes like what happened after the elections, who brought about the chaos— 

Where people confess to the crimes they did, then there should be a provision for giving 

them some kind of immunity. 

With those words, I support. 

Mr. Ruteere: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, since there is consensus that we accept these 

names, am I in order to request that the Mover be called upon to reply? 

Mr. Deputy Speaker: If that is the mood of the House, let the Mover reply. 

Mr. Abdikadir: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move. 

(Question put and agreed to) 

MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT 

———— 

Background to the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission: Kenya has a 

history of political violence and gross human rights violations dating back to its 

Independence from Britain in December 1963. Documented violations include political 

assassinations, extra judicial executions of civilians, collective punishment and torture of 

minority populations, massacres by security forces including the army, torture of persons 

in custody, enforced disappearances and ethnic cleansing. For 39 years the KANU party 

ruled Kenyans and controlled government. Following the defeat of the KANU party in 

December 2002, the new coalition government headed by Mwai Kibaki commissioned an 

inquiry into policy actions to deal with past gross violations of human rights. 

In August 2003, the Report of the Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and 

Reconciliation 

Commission chaired by Prof. Makau Mutua was published. It stated that “Kenyans have 

asked their government to immediately establish a truth, justice, and reconciliation 

commission. They have overwhelmingly said that the truth about the past must be known, 

that perpetrators must be identified and punished, that victims must be accorded justice, 

and that reconciliation is only possible after the truth is known and justice is done. 

Kenyans want an effective and credible truth commission, an institution that will not 

engage in a witch-hunt or a whitewash. Such a commission must have the powers to 

recommend lustration, that is, to bar offenders from holding public office. It must be 

empowered to recommend redress for victims, such as compensation, restitution, and 



reparations. It should be authorized to inquire into stolen property and funds, and to 

recommend that they be returned to the public or the individuals from whom they were 

stolen. The truth commission should investigate gross human rights violations and 

economic crimes and recommend prosecutions.” 

This important work by the Makau Mutua Task Force was immediately shelved and 

forgotten. The outrages of the post election violence of 2007-8 created a new impetus for 

transitional justice and in March 2008, the parties to the Kenya National Dialogue and 

Reconciliation agreed that a statutory Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission 

should be established for a 2 year term and be mandated to inquire into human rights 

violations, grand corruption and international crimes committed between December 12th 

1963 and February 28th 2008. The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Act which 

established the Kenyan Truth Commission came into effect on March 9th 2008. A 

Selection Panel conducted interviews and short listed the names of 15 potential 

Commissioners for Parliamentary approval. The Selection Panel was made up of persons 

nominated by the Kenya Episcopal Conference, National Council of Churches of Kenya, 

Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, Hindu Council of Kenya, Seventh Day Adventist Church, 

Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Law Society of Kenya, Federation of Kenya 

Women Lawyers, Central Organization of Trade Unions, Kenya National Union of 

Teachers, Association of Professional Societies of East Africa, Kenya National 

Commission on Human Rights, Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Federation of Kenya 

Employers, and the Kenya Medical Association. It’s proceedings were not conducted in, 

nor have they been made, public. 

In June 2009 Parliament approved the names of Kenyans and foreign experts for 

submission to the President to appoint the Commission. President Kibaki appointed the 9 

member Commission in July 2009. An annual budgetary allocation of only 100 million 

shillings meant that in 2009 the Commission hardly made a dent in public consciousness, 

and it wasn’t until January 2010 that the Commission announced a nationwide public 

meetings schedule intended to make a preliminary assessment of the historical grievances 

Kenyans have. 

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Zambia 

5 Responses to “WHY AMBASSADOR BETHUEL KIPLAGAT SHOULD 

QUIT FOR KENYA TO ATTAIN TRUTH JUSTICE AND 

RECONCILIATION” 

1. on 04 Feb 2010 at 1:38 pm1Wagalla Massacre - What Really Happened 

The Wagalla Massacre: what really happened? 



S. Abdi Sheikh 

On 11 January 1985, the Principal State Counsel, M. Ole Keiwua, wrote on behalf 

of the Attorney General to Ibrahim Khamis Adan and Alinoor Yussuf Mohamed 

Hussein through their lawyers, Munikah and Company Advocates, asking them, 

in accordance with the rules of civil procedures, to supply specific information 

about the death of their fathers. The information requested included the particular 

dates and times when the deceased persons were killed; whether they were killed 

by the Kenya Army Personnel, the Kenya Police or 1982 Airforce personnel; and 

the names of the specific officers responsible for the deaths of the deceased. 

Khamis Adan Mumin, Ibrahim’s father, worked for Wajir County Council until 

his death; Yussuf Mohamed Hussein was a civil servant in the Ministry of Health. 

The two were among 55 or so employees of various government agencies who 

disappeared from work in early February 1984, never to be seen again. Their 

employers reported them as having deserted their duties and their families could 

not access their terminal benefits. 

The question of who killed these two men and more than three thousand others 

was raised in parliament by the former Member of Parliament for Wajir West, the 

late Ahmed Khalif Mohamed, on 21 March 1984. During a debate on then- 

President Moi’s speech at the opening of that parliamentary session, Khalif 

accused the security forces of killing hundreds in Wajir District. The government 

forces, he said, had placed more than 4000 people in a concentration camp, over 

300 had been immediately executed, and over 600 were confirmed missing. 

Khalif directly accused the PC for North Eastern Province, Benson Kaaria, and 

the Somalia government of collusion in the murder. Kaaria had claimed, as 

reported by the Standard on November 9, 1980, that he would eliminate all 

Somali-speaking people in the country unless they exposed shifta who had killed 

a District Officer. Khalif’s accusations were met with utmost hostility by the 

entire parliament. Mwai Kibaki, Keneth Matiba, A. Y. Boru and Samuel Ng’eny 

demanded substantiation. Charles Muthura accused Khalif of irrelevance in his 

contribution to the presidential speech while Parmenas Munyasia jestingly 

demanded to know the names of those who threatened to wipe out the Somalis. 

Khalif was cornered into dropping the Somalia claim but stood his ground on the 

mass killings of Somalis in Wajir. In a bid to substantiate his claim the late MP 

tabled the lists of massacre victims and their photographs in parliament on 28 

March 1984; many on the list were civil servants, including Noor Haji, the former 

Senator from Wajir, who had been killed in the military operation. 

The question of just what happened at Wagalla Airstrip between 10 and 14 

February 1984 was partially answered by the late Justus Ole Tipis in a ministerial 

statement about the military operation, read on the floor of parliament on the night 

of 12 April 1984, and reported in the Nation of April 13 1985. Ole Tipis revealed 

that the security situation in Wajir was politically motivated, and that leaders were 

involved in divisive strategies planned along ethnic considerations. He claimed 

that the government decided to carry out its operations against the Degodia 



community in order to provide security to a neighbouring clan. Ole Tipis gave an 

accurate account of the operations but avoided mention of the resulting genocide. 

The Wajir District Security Committee and the Provincial Security Committee 

were convened by an order from the National Security Council. The meeting took 

place on 8 February 1984 at the DC’s office, Wajir. The District Commissioner 

himself was conveniently replaced by a District Officer, M. M. Tiema. According 

to the signatures in the visitors book at the DC’s office, and eyewitness reports, 

this meeting was attended by J.S. Mathenge, Permanent Secretary Office of the 

President; B. A. Kiplagat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; David Mwiraria, 

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs; John Gituma, Permanent 

Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Brigadier J. R. Kibwana, 

Department of Defence; B. N. Macharia of the Treasury; Z. J. M. Kamencu, 

Deputy Secretary in the Office of the President; J. P.Gitui, D.C.O Police 

Headquarters; J. K. Kaguthi and J. P. Mwagovya of the Office of the President; C. 

M. Aswani, Provincial Police Officer, North Eastern Province; Lt. Col. H. F. K. 

Muhindi of 7KR; J. K. Kinyanjui, director of Land Adjudication Nairobi; and 

finally Benson N. Kaaria Provincial Commissioner, North Eastern Province. The 

meeting resolved to carry out an operation with the objectives of disarming the 

Degodia and forcing them to provide the names of bandits who were committing 

crimes in the district. 

Once the operation was authorised, it began in earnest on 10 February at 0400 and 

involved the Police, the Administration Police and the Army. The operation 

covered Elben, Dambas, Butelehu, Eldas, Griftu and Bulla Jogoo. According to 

the government statement, most of these areas had been swept by February 11 . 

When the army surrounded Bulla Jogoo, they ordered the residents to vacate their 

homes. According to Ole Tipis, the residents refused to comply with the order; the 

military then forcibly removed 381 male members of the Degodia clan from their 

homes and took them to Wagalla Airstrip, 9 miles West of Wajir Town. Ole Tipis 

admitted that those held were 

interrogated for three days and a scuffle erupted when the District Commissioner 

accompanied by the OCPD entered the airstrip. Some of the crowds started to 

escape while others shouted at government officers. In this confusion and 

stampede, 29 people died of gunshots or were trampled upon, while 28 others 

were killed when the army met with resistance during the operations, according to 

the ministerial statement. 

The official story given by the government was close to what happened, save that 

the government minimised the operation’s callousness. The operation covered all 

of Wajir District including Tarbaj, Leheley, Wajir-Bor and Khorof Harar. The 

target community were the Degodia but it is believed a number of Somalis of 

other extraction were caught up in cases of mistaken identity. The operation 

targeted male members of the clan above 12 years of age but women were raped, 

houses were burnt and property was looted in every locality where the operation 

took place. The men rounded up were subjected to torture in an effort to force 



them to confess to owning a rifle. Some died of their wounds before they reached 

Wagalla Airstrip. Those who reached the airstrip were sorted into sub-clans and 

up to 30 members of Jebrail sub-clan were burnt alive in an orgy of 

unprecedented violence. Their clothes were piled on top of them, petrol or some 

other highly flammable chemical was sprinkled on the clothes, and a bonfire 

whose fuel was human flesh was created. The other detainees watched as their 

colleagues were roasted alive. The rest of the men were forced to strip naked and 

told to squat in the hot sun – those who resisted were shot. The late Ahmed Khalif 

reported that the detainees were held at the airstrip for five days; that they were 

denied food and water; and that during this period those who tried to pray were 

shot. In those five days, more than 1000 people starved to death, shot for 

questioning the orders of the forces, or died at the hands of gangs which were 

allowed into the airstrip at night to carry out revenge against those whom they 

held a grudge. 

On the fifth day the remaining men bolted, broke the barbed wire fence and ran 

for their lives. The military opened fire and hundreds were shot — many in the 

back — and killed. The stampede helped most escape into the bushes where they 

received needed help from nomads in the bushes. It was an escape that should 

have come on the first couple of days before so many were murdered, but without 

it the Degodia people would have been wiped off the map. The military found 

itself amid thousands of dead and injured men. The plan had gone awry: men had 

escaped and told others what happened. The military attempted a massive coverup 

that involved piling the dead and injured into lorries and dumping them in the 

bushes; many bodies were also disposed of by fire and acids. A rescue attempt by 

the current Minister for Northern Kenya and Arid Lands, Mohamed Ibrahim Elmi, 

Catholic nun Annalena Tonelli, businessman Noor Unug and others saved many 

people who were ferried into various parts of Wajir district by the armed forces. 

That is how Wagalla Massacre took place. The survivors’ stories are almost 

unbelievable. 

One survivor says that he had never stepped into Wajir town before Februray 9, 

1984. He decided to visit his father there; they were both picked up by the 

military the night he arrived and he found himself at Wagalla naked, hungry and 

thirsty and watching as life ebbed out of his father. Another survivor woke up in a 

pile of bodies in a depression in a bush; next to the his 16 year old cousin’s corpse 

— just an innocent boy shot at back of the head. One survivor escaped in the 

stampede naked and found a young girl herding goats who helped him cover his 

shame with her scarf . 

It has been exactly a quarter of a century since the Wagalla Massacre. In these 

years the victims have refused to stay quiet, the dead are bursting out of their 

graves and giving clues to those who wish to resolve the massacre. The available 

evidence is sufficient to recreate what happened at Wagalla. It is still possible to 

give State Council M. Ole Keiwua the specific information he requested, in order 



to allow Ibrahim and Alinoor to prosecute those who killed their fathers, Yussuf 

Mohamed Hussein and Khamis Adan Mumin, along with 3000 others — this is 

the figure given in the UN report — on the 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14 February 1984 by 

a combined contingent of security officers from the Kenya Army, the 82 Airforce, 

the Kenya Police and the Administration Police. (The larger casualty figures were 

also mentioned to the author by Ahmed Khalif while he was still alive.) The 

officers who killed received an order from their superiors who met at Wajir 

District Commissioner’s Office on 8 Februray 1984. Information of this kind 

could not be given by the sons of the deceased. The same information cannot be 

given now in a Kenyan court. The judiciary in Kenya has refused to hear the case 

because evidence will be adduced unfavourable to the current establishment. The 

Kenya government has therefore decided to form a Truth, Justice and 

Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) which will have powers to summon evidence 

and give amnesty to those who are truthful. The idea of the TJRC is that 

perpetrators of past injustice have been defeated and fear has arisen of the victims 

exacting revenge on past oppressors. It is a way of creating a semblance of justice 

for victims of past crimes who now wield power to harm others. TJRC is a tool of 

reconciling the society at large and it is those who suffered in the past who create 

this tool to clear revenge from their conscience. The Wagalla Massacre victims 

are still victims; they have not acquired any power to harm those who carried out 

such genocide against their people. The only thing that might satisfy their urge for 

justice is a genocide court established on Kenyan soil, but administered by 

international jurists, where the perpetrators can face justice and the community 

can 

demand reparations. The other alternative is a revolution that replaces the current 

order giving all Kenyans who suffered under Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki a chance 

to dictate how and who should govern them. A TJRC can then be mooted to give 

amnesty to the junior officers who did the footwork but the main perpetrators of 

impunity in this country need to be punished for their victims to feel safe. 

____________________ 

S. Abdi Sheikh is the author of “Blood on the Runway: The Wagalla 

Massacre” of 1984. This article first appeared at 

http://www.kenyaimagine.com 

2. on 04 Feb 2010 at 1:55 pm2TORTURE AT NYAYO HOUSE NAIROBI DURING 

THE MOI REGIME – LISTS OF VICTIMS 

TORTURE AT NYAYO HOUSE NAIROBI DURING THE MOI REGIME 

– LISTS OF VICTIMS 

This list is neither conclusive nor exhaustive 

Category 1: List of Nyayo House Torture Survivors arrested, charged, convicted 

and jailed 

1. Achira, James Omwenga 

2. Rungurwa, Fredrick Karithi 



3. Manje, Joseph Kamonye 

4. Ndabi, Elijohn Gitau 

5. Okech, Shem Ogola 

6. Peter Njuguna Nding’o 

7. Opiata, James Odindo 

8. Lumumba , Richard Odenda 

9. Ongwen, George Fanuel Oduor 

10. Muyela, Nelson Akhahukwa 

11. Onyango, Cornels Akelo 

12. Mutonya, David Njuguna 

13. Kahuha, Munyui 

14. Wanderi, Mugo Theuri 

15. Awiti, Adhu 

16. Kihara, Peter Gathoga 

17. Osewe, Walter Edward 

18. Olel, Odhiambo 

19. Odera, Daniel Tito 

20. Mzirai, David Kishushe Lengazi 

21. Wandui, Naftali Karanja 

22. Ogonda, Charles 

23. Ondewe, Alex Okoth 

24. Maina, Geoffrey Kiongo 

25. Kitur, Philip Tirop Arap 

26. Riagayo, John Murithi 

27. Waweru, Simon Maina 

28. Agutu, Vitalis Owinyo 

29. Waheire, Bernard Wachira 

30. Mghanga, Julius Mwandawiro 

31. Ongombe, Odungi Randa 

32. Onyange, William Apiyo 

33. Achieng, George Otieno 

34. Mathenge, Remjioh “Kaggia” 

35. Kamana, Kimunya 

36. Kariuki, Benedict Munene 

37. Mburu, Stanley Muchugia 

38. Kihara, Joshua Njoroge 

39. Karanja, Joseph Gichuki 

40. Mahugu, Michael Danson 

41. Wekesa, Richard 

42. Nyoike, Kimani wa 

43. Nderi, Herman Marine 

44. Wang’ombe, Jackson Maina 

45. Wambola, Dick Joel Omondi 

46. Waikonyo, Michael Mwangi 

47. Theuri, Daniel John Mwangi 

48. Chege, Peter 



49. Karanja, Francis Nduthu 

50. Wanguthi, Stephen Njoroge 

51. Kariuki, Stanley Waweru 

52. Oduor, Silvanus Christopher Okech 

53. Buke, Robert Wafula 

54. Mwati, Zachary Kariuki Paul 

55. Maina, Njoroge 

56. Arara, Harris Okongo 

57. Kahungi, William Muchiri 

58. Kiriamiti, John Baptista Wanjohi 

59. Kahara, Charles Njoroge 

60. Kituu, Stephen Mulili 

61. Muigai, Andrew Kebathi 

62. Ang’ong’a, Wilson Awuor 

63. Nduthu, Francis Karimi 

64. Kimani, Milton Chege 

65. Wangunya, Alex 

66. Kariki, Edward Koigi 

67. Anyona, George 

68. Kariuki, Ngotho 

69. Kathangu, Augustine Njeru 

70. Wamwere, Charles Kuria 

71. Oyugi Edward 

72. Kamau, Loli Wambua 

73. Gicheru, Harrison Githaiga 

74. Wamwere, Koigi 

75. Kariuki, Mirugi 

76. Kinuthia Rumba 

77. Kinuthia, Joseph Mwara 

78. Mwara, Hosea Gitau 

79. Ndirangu, Andrew Mureithi 

80. Wakaba, Harry Thungu 

81. Mwangi, Elijah Bernard 

82. Kihara, Samuel Ndila 

83. Muthike, Peter Kitusa 

84. Osundwa, George Chitechi 

85. Kihoro, Karige 

86. Mwairo, D. Chome 

87. Adongo, Justice Maurice Ogony 

88. Thiong’o, Gupta Nga’ang’a 

89. Kahiga, Francis Chege 

90. Mutahi, Paul Wahome 

91. Mutahi, Joseph Njuguna 

92. Murathe, David Wakairu 

93. Muhehe, Benjamin Andahi 

94. Kimani, Gibson Maina 



95. Muchiri, Macharia 

96. Muthigani, Wanderi 

97. Odote, Samuel Onyango 

98. Nyakundi, Fred Osoyo 

99. Njoroge, Charles Kang’ara 

100. Njoroge, George Mwaura 

101. Ndung’u, Raphael Kariuki 

102. Momanyi, Peter Nyangau 

103. Miano, Joseph Karuiru 

104. Njuguna, Wanyoike 

105. Kahiri, James Mwangi 

106. Saikwa, Ali 

107. Imunde, Lawrence Ndege 

…………………………………….. 

Category 2A: List of Victims Arrested, Confined, Tortured, Jailed and Deceased 

during/after Nyayo House deceased (Nyayo House) 

1. Ochieng, Harjulas Nyapanyi Kabaselleh 

2. Opanyi, Mwai Atito 

3. Nduthu, Karimi 

4. Kamangara, John Maina 

5. Apiyo, Onyange Augustine 

6. Maina, Joseph Karuiru 

7. Imbo, Silas Awuor 

8. Mbaja, Oyangi 

9. Atieno, Ernest Owuor 

10. Chege, Charles Wainaina 

11. Ojijo, Daniel Odera 

12. Ndede, Dandi Mbewa 

13. Opar, Absalom N. Ombee 

14. Otieno, George 

15. Mwakudua wa Mwachofi 

16. Ng’ang’a Mukaru 

17. Mbau, Paul 

18. Wanjau, Gakaara 

19. Karanja, Peter Njenga 

20. Wanjema, Stephen 

21. Thuo, Donald Mwangi 

22. Mutahi, Paul Wahome 

23. Kiragu, Bernad Githigi 

24. Namadoa, Dickson Nabwire 

25. Gatu, Sam Gatungo 

26. Kimondo, Kiruhi 

27. Chege, Richard Gathua 

28. Odumbe, Eliud Ahao 

29. Kariuki, Peter Githua 



30. Waruiru, John Mungai 

31. Githirwa, Stanislaus Muhoro 

32. Macharia Kaara 

…………………………………….. 

Category 3: List of Nyayo House torture survivors detained without trial 

1. Mkangi, Katama 

2. Kariuki, Isaiah Ngotho 

3. Miano, Gacheche 

4. Kihoro, Wanyiri 

5. Odinga, Raila 

6. Gathitu, Kariuki 

7. Kariuki, Mirugi 

8. Onyango, Patrick Ouma 

10. Nga’ang’a, Mukaru 

11. Okwany, Samuel Okumu 

12. Guya, Richard Obuon 

13. Paul Amina 

Category 4: List of Nyayo House torture survivors released without charge 

1. Muchiri, Fredrick Waweru 

2. Wanyeki, John Muchiri 

3. Munyeki, Baptista John 

4. Chege, Richard Gathua 

5. Kimondo, Kiruhi 

6. Kinuthia, Margaret 

7. Maina, Mercy Wambura 

8. Ndiba, Kihara 

9. Gatu, Sam Gahungo 

10. Kiruhi, Wachira 

11. Kinyanjui Gabriel Peter 

12. Mwaura, James 

13. Kamau, Munene 

14. Githere, Joe 

15. Akumu, James Aggrey Joel 

16. Kihumba, Stephen Wagema 

17. Munyika, Samuel 

18. Christine, M. Patrick 

19. Alogo, Raila 

20. Mary, Mwaura 

21. Florence, Nyaguthie Murage 

22. Kimani, Joe Njoroge 

23. Kuria, Kamau 

24. Wanyama 

25. Mwangi, Gabriel 



26. Murage, Frederick 

27. Kariuki, Denis 

28. Mwangi, William 

29. Amina, Paul 

30. Munyua, Anthony 

31. Owak, David 

32. Njoroge, Wilson Nduati 

33. Ngotho, Isaiah 

34. Karanja, Joseph 

35. Gitau, Wanguthi 

36. Mwangi, Washington Gichuki 

37. Waruiru, Edward 

38. Mwaura, Mary 

39. Theuri, Joseph Ndumia 

40. Kimani, Wilson Maina 

41. Kihara, Samuel 

42. Atiang, Charles Etyang 

43. Kariithi, James Mwangi 

44. Wanguthi, Gitau 

45. Mwangi, David Ndii 

46. Njoroge, Kingori 

47. Kariuki, James Mwangi 

48. Juma, Kipsang 

49. Michuki, George Kihara 

50. Kiboro, Munga David 

51. Mbote, Simon Njaaga 

52. Wainaina, George John Njenga 

53. Wainaina, John Njenga 

54. Ndamwe, Salim 

55. Moroto, Stephen Kiop 

56. Nenee, Michael Loboin 

57. Namedo, Samuel Toyoko 

58. Kirui, Ayub Miano Julius 

Category 5: List of victims/survivors who were forced to flee/Exiles 

1. Wanguthi, Gitau 

2. Gicheha, Mungai 

3. Mwara, Gitau 

4. Kaara, Macharia 

5. Kaberere, Samuel Njenga 

6. Thiong’o, Ngugi wa 

7. Kinyatti, Maina 

8. Maigwa, Charles 

9. Onyango, David oloo 

10. Ngome, Charles 

11. Wangunya, Alex 



12. Mghanga, Mwandawiro 

13. Waruiru, Mungai 

14. Njoroge, Kingori 

15. Jakobuya, David Dimba 

16. Kameana, Jonathan Mbuthia 

17. Githirwa, Stanislaus Muhoro 

18. Adongo, Justice Maurice Ogony 

19. Obanda, Omondi 

20. Mutahi, Njuguna 

21. Odongo, Langi Joseph 

22. Sumba, Onyango 

23. Ngugi, Muhindi 

24. Gichure, Kiiru 

25. Omondi, Kabir 

26. Jeff, Mwangi Kwirikia 

27. Stephen, Karanja 

28. Kishushe, Mzirai 

Category 6: List of victims/survivors arrested, confined, charged in court but not 

jailed 

1. Kamuyu, Chris (former Dagoretti MP) 

2. Muraguri, Cyrus Gitari (Former Businessman) 

3. Murage, Florence Nyaguthie (University Employee) 

4. Kimani, Joe Njoroge 

…………………………………….. 

Source: http://kenya.fes-international.de/publications/live2tell.pdf 

The Nyayo House Story 

We Lived To Tell 

Published by: 

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) 

Copyright owned by: 

© Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2003 

© Citizens for Justice 2003 

3. on 04 Feb 2010 at 5:28 pm3Terms of Reference for Truth Commission Regardless 

of Whose Running It 

One of the least contested questions in the quest for a truth commission for Kenya 

relates to its terms of reference or the matters that it must address, that is, the 

types of violations that it must investigate. Although different communities, 

groups, and individuals around the country expressed particular preferences to the 

Task Force, there is no doubt about the functions that Kenyans want a truth 

commission to perform. Kenyans want a truth commission to perform four 

interrelated functions. These are establishing the truth about past atrocities by 



identifying the perpetrators and the reasons behind their actions; recognizing 

victims and providing justice or some form of redress for the harm and suffering 

inflicted on them by the previous governments; auditing the state and suggesting 

corrective measures to avoid a recurrence of abuses; and creating an enabling 

environment for national reconciliation and healing. 

But Kenyans are clear that these functions cannot be successfully performed 

unless established categories of human rights violations and economic crimes are 

fully investigated and addressed. While it is true that many horrible and 

unimaginable violations have been perpetrated by the state over the last forty 

years, the Task Force believes that a truth commission cannot investigate every 

human rights violation. The Task Force therefore recommends that a truth 

commission address certain categories of violations. The violations that ought to 

form the terms of reference of a truth commission must be those that indicate a 

systemic pattern or state policies, actions that were carried out as policies of the 

state to abrogate the rights of Kenyans. Thus a truth commission must have the 

discretion to decide which violations qualify for scrutiny. In any case, it is 

practically impossible for a truth commission to address more than several 

thousand cases. That is why the Task Force has identified individual cases and 

groups of violations that it believes ought to be the subject of inquiry. The Task 

Force has made this choice consistent with the views of Kenyans and with due 

regard to the purposes of an effective, timely, and the least burdensome truth 

commission. The Task Force recommends that a truth commission investigates 

six categories of human rights violations and economic crimes. 

1. Political Assassinations and Killings 

It is an undeniable fact that the Kenyan state has over the last forty years of the 

reign of KANU employed political murder as an instrument of silencing political 

dissent, stifling democratic opposition, and creating a despotic, authoritarian, and 

murderous state. The Task Force heard, over and over again, harrowing accounts 

of how prominent and ordinary Kenyans, whom the state deemed political 

dissidents, have been assassinated and murdered by the state over the years. It is a 

telling testimony of the state’s planning and execution of dozens of assassinations 

and murders of political leaders and government critics that virtually no one has 

been held accountable for these killings. 

The purpose of the killings, without doubt, was to eliminate political opponents 

and all those who would oppose the monopoly of power enjoyed by KANU from 

1963 to 2002. Kenyans are united in their demand that political murder must 

never again be an instrument of state policy to silence political dissent or 

government critics. Kenyans want the perpetrators of political killings 

investigated and called to account, their victims recognized, and justice done. 

Impunity for these killings must be ended, and the only sure way of doing so is by 

holding those responsible accountable. 



Political killings and assassinations are divided into two categories, those of 

prominent Kenyans, and those of ordinary wananchi who were deemed to be 

critical of, or opposed to, KANU over the last forty years. The Task Force 

recommends that a truth commission should investigate a number of these 

killings, including those of Pio Gama Pinto, J.M. Kariuki, Dr. Robert Ouko, and 

Father Anthony Kaiser. Among the most significant political assassination was 

that of the late J. M. Kariuki in 1975. The Task Force also recommends that the 

truth commission select a number of killings of ordinary wananchi for 

investigation. 

2. Massacres and Possible Genocides 

The use of political violence by the state to quash opposition to it was directed not 

only at individuals, but also at groups and communities. By far the most brutal 

massacres of Kenyans have been carried out in Northern Kenya, and in particular 

North Eastern Province, which has since the colonial time been the epicenter of 

human rights violations in Kenya. Since independence, KANU governments have 

treated Northern Kenya as enemy territory and its residents as second-class 

citizens. The region is an abject lesson in marginalisation and official neglect. It 

has been rendered so remote and inhospitable that its residents do not – and 

cannot – feel Kenyan. Frequent military expeditions, the brutality of the 

provincial and district administrations, massacres, the castration of males, the rape 

of women and girls, the dumping of toxic waste, and the complete lack of 

development have turned the area into a vast wasteland. 

A truth commission must investigate all the massacres in the region, particularly 

the Wagalla Massacre in which thousands were brutally and callously 

exterminated by state security forces. The Wagalla Massacre may meet the 

criteria for genocide since it was directed at one community, the Degodia. Other 

massacres include the Bagalla Massacre, the Malka-Mari Massacre, and many 

others in the region. The truth commission must also investigate the Kisumu 

Massacre of 1969 in which scores were brutally murdered when President 

Kenyatta visited the area. That massacre came to symbolize the proclivity of 

KANU governments to repress citizens of the Luo community in Kenya. 

3. Political Violence and Killings of Democracy Advocates 

In the late 1980s until 2002, the Moi government pursued an open policy of using 

naked state violence to suppress and vanquish the political opposition and prodemocracy 

campaigners, among them civil society, opposition political parties, 

journalists, students, the clergy, and any and every real or imagined political 

dissident. Opposition political rallies and meetings of government critics were 

frequently broken up, and violently so. Police and security forces have killed 

scores of reformers throughout the last two decades. But perhaps the most 

memorable use of state violence against pro-democracy advocates was the Saba 

Saba incident of July 7, 1997 in which government agents killed more than a 

dozen Kenyans. A truth commission must investigate Saba Saba and other similar 

incidents. 



4. Torture, Detention, Exile, Disappearances, Rape, and Persecution of Opponents 

Over the last forty years, the state used its enormous power and resources to 

vanquish all those deemed its opponents. The torture of government critics 

became state policy. Hundreds, if not thousands, have been tortured and 

mistreated by the previous governments. Many were killed in the process, while 

others were maimed for life. Some were castrated. Women and girls were raped. 

The Nyayo House Torture Chambers, which the Task Force visited, and which the 

Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs has termed a national monument of 

shame, stands as the living testimony of the brutality of the state. It was a 

dungeon where political opponents were stripped of their humanity and subjected 

to the cruelest of torture tactics. Many other state opponents were detained 

without trial or jailed on trumped up politically motivated charges. Some, like Mr. 

Kenneth Matiba, were ruined beyond repair by detention. Some were disappeared, 

while others, like the celebrated writer Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, were forced 

into exile. The list goes on. A truth commission must investigate these abuses. 

5. Politically Instigated Ethnic Clashes 

Throughout the 1990s, the Moi government instigated and at times directed the 

ignition and execution of ethnic clashes against communities that were deemed to 

be in opposition to it. Directed at so-called opposition communities and zones, 

these clashes exploited the volatile question of land as their pretext. Communities 

that had lived peaceably together for decades were suddenly turned against each 

other as the KANU state sought to stamp out opposition to its rule. 

Various investigations and reports by the Law Society of Kenya, the churches, the 

Kiliku Report, the Akiwumi Report, and many others established beyond the 

shadow of a doubt that KANU, its senior officials, their allies, many of its 

members of parliament and local politicians, the police and security forces, and 

the provincial and district administrations either instigated or carried out attacks 

against individuals and communities deemed opponents of the regimes. 

In both the Rift Valley and Coast Provinces, in particular, Kenyans from certain 

communities were termed “foreigners” and either killed outright, their lands 

forcibly taken, their property and livestock confiscated or destroyed, women and 

girls from their communities raped and beaten, and their lives irreparably ruined. 

Many of these “foreigners” were forcibly exiled from the provinces and dared to 

return. Thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands internally displaced in 

the so-called land clashes. Deep wounds have been left on the Kenyan psyche by 

these clashes. The epicenters of the clashes, such as Molo, Enoosopukia, Likoni, 

and many other places must form a central component of the terms of reference of 

a truth commission, and must be fully investigated. 

The truth commission ought to establish culpability and make recommendations 

for redressing these most abominable of violations. 



The truth commission, in its investigation of land and ethnic clashes, shall pay 

particular attention to historical claims and distortions brought about by 

colonialism. These historical problems were not addressed, and have in fact been 

compounded by post-colonial governments. Further, the 

Task Force recommends that the government expand the mandate of the recently 

appointed land commission to fully investigate and settle historical land problems 

with finality. 

6. Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 

Economic crimes are a difficult matter to investigate and establish culpability. 

Quite often, white-collar criminals are adept at covering their tracks and 

concealing the chain of evidence. Human rights violations or bodily integrity 

violations, on the other hand, are easier to verify and establish because human 

bodies are the primary evidence. That is why most truth commissions have found 

it difficult to address economic crimes. Even so, economic crimes are so 

intertwined with human rights violations that it is impossible to establish 

watertight compartments between the two types of violations. This is more so in 

the Kenyan case where economic crimes were committed as part and parcel of 

human rights violations. 

Land, for example, is an economic asset, and the killing or forcible eviction of the 

lawful owners from their lands constitutes both economic crimes and human 

rights violations. Similarly, the looting of the public purse and the stealing of 

public monies in bank accounts at home or abroad has translated into a collapsed 

infrastructure and economic decomposition. Deaths on Kenya’s horrible roads, 

the absence of medicines and hospital equipment, the pathetic state of Kenyan 

schools, and a host of other ills are directly attributable to the theft of public funds 

and property by previous governments over the last forty years. 

Economic crimes lead to the violations of the entire gamut of human rights, and in 

particular of economic, social and cultural rights. It is a well-established fact in 

human rights law that all human rights – including economic, social and cultural 

rights – are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. Thus human rights law 

does not only refer to civil and political rights. The Republic of Kenya has an 

internationally binding obligation to protect all human rights, that is, civil and 

political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights because it is a signatory 

to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That is why a 

truth commission should investigate the violations of civil and political rights as 

well as those of economic, social and cultural rights. It is important to note that 

violations of economic, social and cultural rights disproportionately affect both 

women and children. These include the rights to shelter, education, water, work, 

health, and a host of others. Kenya is a patriarchal society in which women and 

children are the most vulnerable individuals, and on whom the violations of 

economic, social and cultural rights have the greatest impact. This is a matter to 

which the truth commission ought to pay special attention. 



The Task Force realizes that a truth commission should not investigate the bulk of 

economic crimes because the Goldenberg Commission and other state offices are 

looking into them. In addition, economic crimes, due to their complexity, are very 

difficult to investigate. Yet, the Task Force believes that a truth commission 

should investigate a selected set of economic crimes that directly lead to the 

violations of economic, social and cultural rights. A few examples will suffice. 

The failure by a contractor for the production and provision of clean and safe 

drinking water because of fraud or theft of public funds resulting in ill health or 

deaths ought to be the subject of an investigation by a truth commission. The 

same should be true for the grabbing of public land to displace a school, a 

community cultural center, or other public amenities. A fraudulent contract for 

providing medical supplies could also be the subject of scrutiny. In other words, a 

truth commission should address a selected set of economic crimes that have a 

direct bearing on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. 

It is the view of the Task Force that the truth commission ought to be given 

powers to negotiate with perpetrators of economic crimes for the return of public 

property, wealth, and monies in exchange for recommendations for a limited 

amnesty or immunity from prosecution. The truth commission should be 

empowered to establish a Victim’s Compensation and Rehabilitation Fund from 

such property and funds 

4. on 04 Feb 2010 at 5:31 pm4Wagalla Massacre - Nun Who Saw It All And Died 

With The Story by John Kamau EA Standard 16.02.2004 

Nun Who Saw It All And Died With The Story 

John Kamau 

Nairobi, February 16, 2004 (The East African Standard) – The death of a key 

witness to the Wagalla massacre now means that the horrific details from an 

independent source may never come to light. 

About four months ago, just as the government promised to unearth what really 

happened at the Wagalla airstrip, a lone gunman entered a 300-bed hospital 

compound in Borama town, Somaliland, and shot dead 60-year-old Italian nun, Dr 

Annalena Tonelli. 

Tonelli, declared a persona non grata in Kenya following the Wagalla massacre, 

had for 20 years remained a key witness, but had not divulged any details of the 

atrocity and declined any publicity. 

Aid workers who knew her say she kept the details to herself although it is known 

that the trained lawyer had taken lots of details and recorded events that followed 

the massacre. 



In 1984, after she learnt what had transpired at the Wagalla airstrip, Tonelli 

painted a Red Cross symbol on her Toyota and drove to the field in search of the 

dead and survivors. 

Unknown to many, she contacted the wife of an American diplomat, Barbara 

Lefkow, a physiotherapist who also worked with her, and gave her a list of the 

dead to smuggle out of Wajir to the international Press. 

Would anyone in Kenya have plotted to finish her off and finally erase any 

incriminating evidence? 

Her killing, however, will not derail efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of 

the Wagalla massacre, said the Truth Be Told Network, a lobby group 

campaigning for a judicial inquiry into the massacre. 

Speculation 

With Tonelli’s killer still at large, speculation is rife within charitable 

organizations that the nun was murdered because of her work among the Somalis. 

Surprisingly, Tonelli had willed that she be buried in Wajir, the same town that 

she had buried hundreds of the Wagalla victims, prompting her expulsion by then 

Internal Security minister, Justus ole Tipis. 

As her body was flown to Nairobi’s Lee Funeral Home last October, there was 

hardly any news about Tonelli’s work in Kenya and no condolences from 

Government officials. Her name, perhaps like those of the Wagalla victims, had 

been forgotten. 

Even as the light aircraft carrying her body on Saturday October 11, 2003, left 

Nairobi’s Wilson Airport for Wajir, where Tonelli was finally interred, there was 

hardly any ceremony about the event, including in the media. 

Two days later, aid workers attended a church service in Nairobi to celebrate her 

life. 

“She buried the dead, rescued and treated the survivors. We will forever be 

grateful for her work,” said Wajir East MP Abdi Mohammed, as he led North 

Eastern leaders in mourning the nun. 

Far away in America, the Washington Post and Time magazine eulogised her, but 

in Kenya her name did not ring a bell for many. Yet, had an inquiry been 

conducted on the Wagalla massacre, Dr Tonelli would have been the star witness. 

She was the one who buried the dead in the mass grave inside the Wajir Catholic 

Rehabilitation Centre and kept the records. She also gathered evidence and 

rescued survivors who had been dumped in the bushes around Wajir shortly after 



the February 14 killings at the Wagalla airstrip, some six kilometers from Wajir 

town. 

But for failing to keep quiet about the issue, Tonelli was in 1985 ordered to leave 

Kenya in the hope that the ghosts of the Wagalla massacre would be laid to rest. 

She crossed the border and entered Somalia in yet another ‘forgotten part of the 

world’ as she called it. 

Back in Kenya, Tipis had maintained that only 57 people had died yet Tonelli, 

who arrived here in 1969, talked of hundreds. 

After she settled in Borama, aid workers say she escaped banditry attacks, death 

threats, kidnappings and beatings until the day she was finally gunned down. 

“I still don’t know why they killed her,” wrote David Brown of the Washington 

Post, who had had an opportunity to interview her in Borama. 

And like in Wajir, she had fought hard against tuberculosis, illiteracy, blindness, 

malnutrition and female genital mutilation. In Borama, she set up a camp for 

Aids, and was last year voted the 

recipient of the Nansen Refugee Award, the top recognition by the UN High 

Commissioner for Refugees. 

Awarded 

The award, named after Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, is given to 

individuals or organisations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf 

of refugees. 

That Tonelli never spoke about Wagalla tells much about her: she was not an 

activist. 

Adecade earlier she had told the Washington Post that she didn’t believe that her 

life was a sacrifice. “It is an idea that makes me laugh. I often felt that there was 

nobody on earth who had such a privilege to be able to live like this,” she said. 

Tonelli, the daughter of an economist and the second in a family of five children, 

grew up near Bologna in Italy and wanted to spend her life in Africa. 

“My family did not want it. So I took the first chance,” she once said. 

Holding diplomas in tropical medicine, community medicine and TB control, 

Tonelli had for years remained the one person who could help unravel the 

Wagalla mystery. The crime had unfolded before her very eyes and among a 

community in which she had set up outreach clinics. 



“She wanted the fewest possible barriers between herself and those she lived and 

worked with. She chose to be without a name, without the security of a religious 

order, without membership of any organization,” says UNICEF consultant 

Maggie Black. 

Even as she received the Nansen Award, Tonelli shied away from publicity about 

her work in Kenya and Somalia. “I have always tried to stay hidden and refused 

any publicity,” she said last June in Geneva. 

And with her death, the circumstances surrounding an already clouded incident 

only got hazier. 

According to Benson Kaaria, who was North Eastern Provincial Commissioner at 

the time, many of the key people involved in the massacre are dead. 

Among them was a Major Mdogo, the army officer who commanded the 

operation, and the area police boss, a Mr. Namwoso

why ambassador bethuel kiplagat should quit for kenya to attain ...

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