For activist, Ken Wafula, road was paved with threats on his life

One day in December 1998, when I worked for the Nation in Eldoret, we drove to Lake Bogoria Resort for an assignment. Leaders in the North Rift were meeting to discuss solutions to the stock theft menace that had erupted again with disastrous consequences.

After a day of boring speeches by politicians and administrators, we headed back to Eldoret, stopping at Eldama Ravine for a late lunch.

As we walked to the restaurant, we saw a man who looked familiar lying on his back under a tree in a public square reading a book.

It was Ken Wafula. Eldama Ravine, in the Kanu heartland of Baringo, was the last place I had expected to meet Ken alone given his crusade against the then ruling party.

He said he was hiding from  Eldoret police. ‘’I know they are looking for me in all the places I frequent in Eldoret and Kitale. Ravine is the last place they can look for me,’’ he told us and burst out laughing.

He declined our invitation to join us for lunch. ‘’You newspaper people are always under surveillance by the Special Branch. I will expose myself if I’m seen with you.’’

RUNNING AWAY

We parted and he went back to reading his book. After our lunch, he was gone. That was Ken Wafula’s life, always running away from  people who wanted to harm him for his strong convictions.

Mr Wafula, who died on Wednesday at 43, was a courageous, brave and independent-minded man who spoke truth to power in defence of human rights.

He founded Eldoret-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD).

Born in Burnt Forest in  1975, Mr Wafula, who later settled in Trans Nzoia, joined the human rights crusade after his family and thousands of others were evicted from their homes in the politically-instigated attacks in the early 90s as the struggle to end Kanu’s monopoly on power reached its peak.

When his family was displaced, he dropped out of Arnesens Secondary School and briefly lived on the streets of Eldoret before going back to school, thanks to the intervention of Catholic Bishop Cornelius Korir, who died last year.

But it was the 2007/8 post-election chaos in which 1,133 Kenyans were killed and nearly 600,000 displaced, that brought out his fearlessness and posed the gravest danger to him.

HUMAN RIGHTS

The violence, caused by a disputed presidential election contest between incumbent Mwai Kibaki and challenger Raila Odinga resulted in four Kenyans facing crimes against humanity charges before the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

These included Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang, both from Wafula’s North Rift region. The others were President Uhuru Kenyatta and former public service head Francis Muthaura.

Because of his human rights work, Mr Wafula admitted playing a role in witness protection. This led to politicians in the region accusing him of procuring witnesses against the accused, charges he vehemently denied. It was these accusations that put his life in grave danger and many were the times that he was spirited out of his home by human rights defenders to escape assassination attempts.

‘‘He would call me even in the middle of the night when his security situation deteriorated. In most cases it was about strange people in an unmarked car hovering around his gate; or people following him around town or some overzealous supporters of politicians in Eldoret who would confront him and threaten him in the streets. On one occasion, they actually beat him up,’’ said Mr Otsieno Namwaya of Human Rights Watch yesterday.

On another occasion, he said, Mr  Wafula had to be whisked out of Eldoret when credible reports were received that a hit squad, led by a man called Saddam, had been hired from Uganda to kill him and five others.

HOSTILE

Mr Wafula himself said the ICC issue gave him a lot of grief.

“Local politicians have always been hostile to me and said I’m the author of the Deputy President’s problems. That is not true,” he told the Daily Nation in an interview at one time.

Then suddenly in 2015 he had a Road to Damascus moment. He stated that Mr Ruto and Mr Sang had actually been fixed and that they were innocent.

This followed claims by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria that some leaders from Central Kenya coached witnesses to fix Mr Ruto.

“Everyone thought I fixed DP Ruto and Sang. Now that Kuria has come out, the truth can finally be known,” said Mr Wafula.

HELPLESS

But in private, he told friends he had other reasons for the change of mind. Mr Namwaya said the change came following a meeting in Nairobi with a lawyer for one of the accused.

‘‘He told me the change was tactical; he was tired of having to go into hiding every now and then. He said he felt helpless and betrayed by colleagues because no one believed him any more about the threats to his life. One day after he received a threat via SMS telling him he had only a few days to live, he went to report to Eldoret police and the officer at the desk was even more scared than him. He felt cornered,” said Mr Namwaya. So, the change was to save his life from those who were after him.

How ironical then that he survived so many physical threats, only to die of what was described yesterday as complications arising from high blood pressure and diabetes.

Reported by Tim Wanyonyi, Wycliff Kipsang’, Barnabas Bii and Titus Ominde