Wagalla operation bungled, team told

The security operation in which some 57 people were killed at the Wagalla airstrip in February 1984 was ‘unprofessional’, a former Wajir DC has said.

Mr Joshua Matui also denied before the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission that the government team that visited Wajir prior to the killings comprised members of the Kenya Intelligence Committee.

He was, however, hard pressed to substantiate those assertions.

Mr Matui, who later rose to become a Permanent Secretary, told the commission that the well-intentioned joint security operation was messed up by security personnel who overreacted.

The former administrator said he was on leave when the operation took place under the command of acting DC M. M. Tiema.

“Something went wrong. The operation was not done professionally,” Mr Matui told the commission public hearings Thursday.

“Had I been in Wajir at the time, what happened would not have occurred because it was clear the operation went out of control.”

But he maintained that the government team from Nairobi, which included then Permanent Secretaries Bethuel Kiplagat, David Mwiraria, and retired army boss Joseph Kibwana, did not visit Wajir District headquarters in their capacity as members of the Kenya Intelligence Committee.

“That was not intelligence, but a conglomeration of several government agencies that was inspecting development projects,” he said.

The former DC also denied he had been conveniently sent on leave after taking part in planning the Wagalla Massacre, which remains a blot on Kenya’s human rights history.

For four days, male adults from Degodia clan were rounded up and detained at the airstrip without food and water.

This was to enable interrogation of clan members accused of killing several members of the rival Ajuran community and identify those who may be in possession of illegal firearms, said Mr Matui.

“On the fourth day at the airstrip, the acting DC (Tiema) appeared at the site…the suspects who had been confined lying face-down and half-naked in the scorching February sun saw him and were optimistic their Saviour had at last arrived and would alleviate them from suffering,” he added.

However, when Mr Tiema failed to address them, most of the suspects tried to stand up to draw his attention.

“This was allegedly interpreted by the security personnel as an attempt to attack the acting DC, and they had to shield him from any possible attack,” Mr Matui said.

After the incident, the former DC stated that 13 people lay dead from bullet wounds while 16 others died of natural causes.

Thus, according to him, only 29 people died in the Wagalla massacre.

The bodies were never handed to the relatives of the victims, according to Mr Matui.

“The bodies were dumped some distance far from Wagalla,” he said.