The Dark Legacy

• They were brutalised or killed by Moi’s agents and yet Wako has refused to pay compensation awarded by courts.
• The victims of Kenya’s darkest chapter won’t wait for the Truth and Reconciliation for a hearing
• How a small band of Moi agents wrote Kenya’s darkest chapter in a basement

Kamau Munene, a journalist with the Kenya News Agency in Kirinyaga District, was arrested in October 1987 on allegations that he was a member of the underground Kenya Patriotic Front. He graphically narrates his ordeal at Nyayo house.

“It was the beginning of an endless journey of torture. I was continually tortured psychologically, physically and mentally with all the crude methods one can think of.

It was a very cold cement floor in the dungeons, very lonely, in fact lonelier than a grave, horrifying and scaring. Whenever they wanted to torture me, I would be blindfolded, guided to a VIP lift and whisked up to the 25th floor then walked to the 26th. This is where the torture took place.

“My torturers would remove the blindfold, strip me naked and handcuff me before starting their game. ‘You dog, who are you compared to 23 million Kenyans?

Even if you die, you are just a bitch!’ Machiri and Opiyo, who I came to know later, would shout at me while whipping me repeatedly.

“In total, there were seven torturers who were armed with machine guns, batons and whips. Two would work on me until they got tired. A woman torturer would mainly be interested in working on my sex organ which she would pierce with a sharp needle, burn the tip and testicles with a smouldering cigarette while a man held my legs apart. This would continue for several hours every day until I passed out.”

Munene recalls one session when Machiri asked him to confess that he was a member of Mwakenya who was also recruiting Nairobi street children to go and train in Libya as mercenaries.

He was also asked to admit that he was frequenting Libya and Moscow to meet Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian leader, allegations that he says were untrue.

“At the time, my father was ailing at the Mater Misericodeae Hospital and on learning of my arrest and fully aware of the consequences, the old man died.

At that time I did not know about it. I did not attend his burial though I was his favourite child. While still in isolation, I felt very sick due to the torture and the hardships that I was subjected to.

My right leg had been broken with a rungu and was swollen. At this juncture I believe the special branch had no option but to release me on sensing that I was just about to die.

However, I was released with a strict warning that I would be shot on sight should I disclose what I underwent especially so to the media.”

All the Nyayo House torture survivors narrate how they heard mysterious noises of a lady wearing high-heeled shoes walking back and forth on the floor above the torture chambers. There were also noises of pulling and pushing of furniture, shuffling of papers and cries of small children.

Waweru Kariuki says: “While in the cells, I heard a woman and children crying. I did not know where the sounds were coming from. Later, the interrogator came to my cell and told me that my wife was there with my children and had confessed. The interrogator had a gun that he used to intimidate me. He told me either to confess or be shot.”

It was later learnt that all the noises were simulated and piped into the cells as a form of psychological torture.