Leader of NYS JM Kariuki (far right) talks to servicemen at a Machakos road project in September 1966. [File, Standard]

It took the keen eye of Kisumu Town MP, Grace Onyango, to stop a spy lurking at City Mortuary, in a white coat with a label, pretending to be a mortuary attendant.

Onyango was in a group of angry MPs who had stormed the City Mortuary but were being prevented from seeing the bodyof their colleague. The white robed spy insisted that he was under strict instructions not to allow anybody into the mortuary. What the spy did not know was that amid the MPs was Kibera, an off duty superintendent of police whose orders he could not defy.

The MPs had flocked the mortuary after, JM Kariuki’s wives stormed Parliament and interrupted the reading of a government statement that the Nyandarua North lawmaker was in Zambia. Chaos erupted when three women screamed that their husband’s body was at the city mortuary.

The lawmakers dashed out but by the time the MPs arrived at the mortuary, the Special Branch spy who normally operated in Parliament was in the process of releasing JM’s body to a group of women wailing outside the mortuary.

Watching over body

“As we were watching over the body, some inside and others outside, others behind the mortuary, we discovered a Peugeot 404 Station Wagon with some women mourning and weeping. They were seriously weeping. They were preparing to receive the body from the mortuary and drive it away in that vehicle,” Former Nakuru, Mark Mwithaga later testified.

Mwithaga, who was a close friend of JM Kariuki had testified that the government’s plan was to release the politician’s remains which had a tag on one of the legs: “A body of unclaimed Luo gangster”.

He had told the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in March, 2012:” I do not know whether they were Luo, but it was a cover up waiting for the body.” To complete the charade, JM’s killers had knocked off three of his lower teeth to justify the “unidentified Luo” tag.

JM’s death on March 2, 1975 had all the telltale signs of a state sponsored hit. As the Parliamentary select committee led by Elijah Mwangale deputised by Mwithaga later discovered later, the killing had been sanctioned by top government officials who were determined to cover it up even for 100 years.

During investigations the committee found that, indeed, a convict serving two years at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, Kinyanjui also known as Mark Twist had been released on a Sunday at 9am in a magistrate’s house and was assigned to follow JM when he went to the Ngong Race Course.

The politician had also noted that he was being followed and reported at Kingsway Police Station (Central Police Station). Earlier, his pistol had been withdrawn by Nyandarua DC Joseph Thuo, leaving him defenceless.

Following the discovery of JM’s mutilated body, which had been dumped at Ngong Forest, a state of anarchy gripped the country. Ironically at this time, the man who was supposed to steer the country, Jomo Kenyatta was indisposed.

As the countries tittered to the brink of anarchy, Cabinet ministers removed flags from their vehicles and retreated to the safety of their homes. The government was gripped by a paralysis and looked on to the president to jolt it back to life.

In Parliament, JM’s firebrand colleagues were having a field day as they attacked the government. While debating the death, Nyeri MP Waruru Kanja declared: “We are ruled not by a government but a bunch of thugs. This is a gangster government!

Maina Wanjigi of Kamukunji was equally scathing, declaring, “We have in Kenya a government of killers. Let them know we are tired of this nonsense of Harambee,” while the fiery Martin Shikuku, accused the government of behaving like the hyena which first ate Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya and had ultimately eaten one of its own. Other MPS who were highly critical of the government were Chelagat Mutai, George Anyona, Peter Kibisu, Jean-Marie Seroney and Martin Shikuku.

Decide destiny

At the time, Kenyatta was bedridden in Gatundu and he was finally revived by his doctors and informed that his Cabinet had capitulated, he instantly called a Cabinet meeting.

On the appointed day at 10.am sharp, Kenyatta who was in pain from gout and other ailments confronted each of his ministers which a single question.

“I am informed that you have quit government, vacated your offices and removed flags from your vehicles. Now I want to hear it for myself that you are no longer in government.”

When each of the petrified ministers said they had not resigned but tried to explain, a furious President cut them short and ended the meeting.

A Kenyatta confidant later intimated that the old man swore if his Cabinet had resigned he would have abdicated his position to let Kenyans decide their own destiny.

To demonstrate that he was unfazed by the crisis presented by JM’s death, Kenyatta had directed recruits from Armed Forces training school to hold their pass-out parade at State House, Nairobi and then marched through the city with Kenyatta taking their salute at the balcony of the Kenya Cinema building.

The Kenya Air Force also had a fly past and the provincial administration organised delegations to Ichaweri to pledge their loyalty.

Confidential information indicates that when James Kanyotu, who was in charge of intelligence appeared before the Mwangale select committee, he testified that there had been an attempt by the CID to link JM to a spate of bombing in the city which had created panic.

Kanyotu testified in camera how Mbiyu Koinange had sent his bodyguard, Peter Karanja, to Special Branch headquarters to report how JM had recruited some men including his own son from Banana to go for military training in Zambia so as t topple the government. But when pressed to explain whether he had any evidence, the bodyguard had said that he wanted some proof from Special Branch.

Arthur Wanyoike Thungu, who was President Kenyatta’s bodyhad also, according to Kanyotu, reported about JM’s alleged recruitment of a militia to undergo military training.

Kanyotu however said the special Branch did not have any such information and dismissed the reports by Mbiyu’s bodyguards and lies and further warned him never to take such reports to him again.

In the course of the hearing it emerged the director of CID, Ignatius Nderi had claimed at OTC, as a red Peugeot car driven by JM or Waruru Kanja had been speeding from the scene and was shot at.

When the parliamentary select committee wrote its report and presented it to Kenyatta at State House, there was a showdown between the members and the president.

At one point Kenyatta asked Mwangale: “Why do you have my Minister’s name (Mbiyu) here and my bodyguard? These are in the Office of the President. It appears if it had not been for politeness, then you would have put my name because leaving my name and putting these names here is the thing I am questioning you about.”

Cancelled names

According to Mwithaga, Mzee cancelled those two names himself with his own pen and asked Mwangale to initial the concurrence.

The president instructed his people to take a group photograph capturing the team which had presented the report and asked the MPs to flash the Kanu, one finger salute.

More drama unfolded in Parliament when the Speaker, Fred Mati declined to have the report tabled but the moment he went out for tea, his deputy, Jean Marie Seroney gave the nod for Mwangale report to be tabled, to the embarrassment on the government.

All the MPs who had sat in the select committee were punished by the government. A number were detained, others were jailed after being convicted of trumped criminal up charges and eventually lost their parliamentary seats.

The committee recommended that Kenyatta’s body guard Wanyoike Thungu, Commandant of GSU, Ben Gethi, CID Director Ireri, Koinange, his bodyguard Peter Karanja, Nakuru Mayor Mburu Gichua, then Nyandarua District Commissioner Stanley Thuo, NYS deputy director Waruhiu Itote and JM’srival in the 1974 General Elecstion, one Evan Ngugi be investigated.

However, 44 years later, no investigation has ever been done even after JM’s watch was discovered hidden in Makongeni Police Station while most of the suspects have died. However, his death still haunts the country and his family which has unsuccessfully tried to reclaim the lawmakers property worth billions which was stolen after his murder.