CSs Kuria, Kindiki wade into murder of Meru blogger
Two Cabinet Secretaries have waded into the raging controversy surrounding the brutal murder of Meru political activist and blogger Daniel Muthiani aka Sniper.
While Public Service CS Moses Kuria suggested the murder might have been associated with the Mungiki sect gang, his Interior counterpart Kithure Kindiki revealed that investigations were being concluded, indicating the perpetrators would soon be arrested.
Muthiani was abducted on December 2 by someone close to his wife Irene Kawira and his body was discovered in a thicket on the banks of Mutonga River in Tharaka Nithi county on December 15.
“The cold-blooded murder of Sniper is in line with the continued profiling and stigmatisation of Mt Kenya youth, branding them as members of the Mungiki and other outlawed gangs. When the threshold of what is legit Humanitarian standards fall this low, the outcome is what you see,” Kuria wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on December 29 at 4.01 am.
He continued: “Now tell your fake Kingpins to live with the ignominy of their short-termism. I will NEVER do anything for the political expediency of the moment. Forgive me for the outburst. I am very upset.”
Kuria’s post drew condemnation from online users, some of whom accused him of diverting attention from investigations.
Although he did not refer to Kuria’s post, at 7.54 pm the same day, Kindiki tweeted: “Those responsible for organising, financing and executing the cruel murder of Daniel Muthiani, alias Sniper, have a date with justice.”
The CS also indicated that arrests would soon follow, saying investigators were on the tail end of the probe.
“Detectives are concluding the process of identifying the evil perpetrators, including those who lured the young man to his death and those who tortured, murdered and dumped his body in an attempt to conceal the terrible crime,” he wrote.
The murder has also drawn the interest of bloggers Denis Itumbi, Cyprian Nyakundi and Robert Alai who joined an online push for justice over the murder of the budding blogger.
Muthiani would record videos attacking or praising local politicians and post them on social media platform Youtube, drawing criticism and praise in equal measure.
A postmortem conducted on his body on December 22 by chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor at Marimanti Level Four hospital mortuary revealed that Muthiani was tortured before being killed.
On December 27, activists and Meru residents held a procession as his body was transported from Marimanti to Nyambene Level Four hospital mortuary in Maua town and appealed to police to expedite investigations into the murder.
Dr Benjamin Kanake who witnessed the postmortem on behalf of the family confessed had not come to terms with what he saw.
The medic, who is also a pathologist said in his career spanning over 30 years during which he has conducted numerous postmortems, he had never witnessed such brutality meted on a human being.
He revealed that as the exercise was going on, a homicide detective commented that Muthiani’s body was trying to “communicate” something; it was not completely decomposed the reason physical identification by the family was possible.
“The officer told us it was not usual for a body to survive the way Muthiani’s had and wondered why ‘it was not eaten by animals in the bush or the crocodiles in Mutonga river. It’s as though Muthiani was speaking to nature, asking it to preserve the evidence.’ The officer’s words have been ringing in my mind ever since,” Dr Kanake said.
“I am traumatized by the brutality meted on Muthiani, how they stashed heaps of sand into his respiratory system…uncountable blows to his head and chest and the eventual strangulation,” he told Nation.Africa in an emotional WhatsApp message.
“Am still in tears when I imagine they did all this when he was on an empty stomach, no glucose to support the basic functions of his last hours. It was my first time to see a stomach so empty even a grain of rice couldn’t be found,” he recounted.
“After the autopsy, I escaped to my car to scream with pain. For a while I felt so helpless with hate, fear and dread…I will need another encounter with God to understand this…I hope to one day meet the killers and ask, ‘how long did Sniper endure before passing out?’ I hope he gave up early to leave them beating an empty body…it pains…it pains…am out of words.”
The doctor noted, “there are no differences that should see people resort to such cruelty on their fellow human beings. There is never an absolute necessity to take another person’s life.”
He advises that “if someone has offended you, seek to meet that person with the sole objective of unconditional forgiveness. Just say, ‘I have forgiven you’ and leave it there. Reconciliation is first to God, to others, then to ourselves.”
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