Truth Team Told of Bids to Kill Mboya

Abiud Ochieng’

19 July 2011

Nairobi — At least three attempts were made to kill politician Tom Mboya before a gunman finished him in Nairobi, the truth team heard on Tuesday.

Mr Peter Odede, a cousin of Mr Mboya, told the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) in Kisumu that although there were some people linked to the killing, most of them have never been charged.

He said that Mr Nahashon Njenga Njoroge, who is accused of killing the politician, has been spotted in Nairobi several times but has not been arrested and charged.

Mr Odede said that there has been a deliberate attempt to frustrate investigations since the killing, adding that the family lawyer tried to pursue the case in the past but was not allowed to interrogate Mr Njenga.

He further said that the family has been concerned that Mr Njenga’s statement “Why pick on me and not the big man?” was not interrogated by the prosecution.

“There are several attempts which were made to kill Mboya but others failed. In 1967, there was an attempt to make him get involved in a road accident but even though he escaped alive, the driver of the lorry was not charged in court with a traffic offence,” said Mr Odede.

“The second attempt was when a guard at his home on Convent Drive in Lavington Green, Nairobi, fired at his car but missed him. The guard, too, was never charged but only dismissed and later on reinstated and re-deployed,” said Mr Odede.

Mr Odede said that before Mrs Pamela Mboya died, she had disclosed to a close friend that she had written a letter to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs requesting that she be furnished with evidence leading to the cause of her husband’s assassination.

She never got any reply. “This was in preparation for her to appear before the TJRC but the same was not responded to. We want TJRC to follow up on the letter and its response.

“Mrs Mboya was also in the process of writing a book on the murder of her husband but had not completed it. We request the TJRC to use its office to find out where the manuscript is so that some of the work can be completed,” said Mr Odede.

He said that by the time the TJRC’s legal and research team visited Rusinga Island, the home of Mr Mboya, there were reports that efforts were being made to erect a statue of the politician on Moi Avenue in Nairobi.

He said the TJRC should influence the government to consider changing the name Moi Avenue to Mboya Avenue and also Tom Mboya Street to Moi Street.

He said it will be appropriate to have the name of the avenue correspond with the statue on it as is the case with Kimathi’s statue on Kimathi Street.

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