Imanyara tables chilling letter on murder ‘plot’

Mr Gitobu Imanyara. Photo/FILE

A letter containing chilling details of an alleged assassination plot targeting eight prominent people, among them former minister Martha Karua and MPs Gitobu Imanyara, was tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

Dated June 10, 2008, the two-page letter allegedly written by a member of the Kwekwe squad names former MPs Paul Muite (Kabete), Dr Bonny Khalwale (Ikolomani), Mr Ferdinand Waititu (Embakasi), Mr G.G. Kariuki (former MP), political activist Mary Wambui and a Mr Charles Kamau as others on the list of people marked for assassination.

Former MP Koigi Wa Wamwere was under 24-hour police surveillance, according to the letter tabled by Mr Imanyara, the Central Imenti MP, who said it was sent to him through Parliament by unknown people.

Mr Imanyara gave a copy to the Deputy Speaker and said intelligence officers have been deployed to the General Post Office to screen all letters addressed to MPs. He, however, asked Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim to give guidance on how the House would deal with such chilling information.

Crying wolf

Mr Maalim agreed that the letter was chilling but his promise to give a ruling next Wednesday did not go down well with Dr Khalwale, who called for urgency in the matter.

The writer, who signed himself as Wilfred Njenga, claims orders to eliminate Mr Muite were issued by First Lady Lucy Kibaki to Police Commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali, Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura and cabinet Minister John Michuki.

But in a quick response, State House dismissed the said letter as a creation of Mr Imanyara, describing the MP as a reckless politician “crying wolf for reasons best known to him.” “Hon Imanyara has sunk to his lowest political ebb by making careless, unfounded and callous statements against the First Family,” said a PPS statement.

“Kenyans will not be hoodwinked to believe such cheap propaganda from a man whose political inconsistencies and grandstanding are evident to all,” added the terse statement.

Police deputy spokesman Charles Owino described the allegations as cheap political propaganda and asked Mr Imanyara to surrender the letter to the police or any international forensic expert for investigations.