STANDARD RAID: Shock as faces behind the 2006 attack on media freedom are UNMASKED

By JIBRIL ADAN

A parliamentary report has finally unveiled the faces behind the cowardly and shameful raid on the Standard Group premises that stunned Kenya and the world.

Even more shockingly, it suggests that President Kibaki must have known or was briefed on the raid in which security forces under the direction of masked alien thugs burnt copies of the newspaper. The aliens have since been identified as Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan. Computers were stolen from the KTN newsroom during the midnight raid on March 2, 2006.

The morning after Standard Group offices at I&M Building and Likoni Road, Nairobi, were raided, Internal Security Minister John Michuki appeared to defend the action, saying if one rattled a snake, they had to be prepared to be bitten.

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Patently clear from the report is that the raid was facilitated by then Internal Security Minister John Michuki who now holds the Environment docket, the then director of the Criminal Investigations Department John Kamau, and Stanley Murage, who was President’s special advisor.

The report will now be debated in Parliament after it was tabled on Wednesday. It will undoubtedly cause sleepless nights to a powerful clique associated with two Armenian thugs-for-hire who operated freely, almost as a special unit of the police, complete with guns and other deadly apparatus.

Controversial Stay

It officially reopens debate into the circumstances surrounding the stunts and illegalities the two engaged in during their controversial stay.

The report was prepared in July 2007 by Parliament’s Committee on Administration, National Security, and Local Authorities together with the committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs.

It was first tabled in Parliament on October 17, 2007, but the House Business Committee whose de facto leader then Minister for Justice Martha Karua, never slotted it for debate on the floor of the House though Motions for its adoption had been moved.

Those named in the report as the main actors in the scandal read like the ‘who-is-who’ in the inner circle that surrounded Kibaki at the time.

Indeed, one of the conclusions of the report is a question on what Kibaki knew about the raid, as well as the activities of the Arturs. Was it disguised as a Government operation to serve vested causes?

It says further investigations should be carried out to answer the question: "What did the Head of Government know? When did he know it, and what did he do about it?"

Further Investigations

The committee on Justice and Legal Affairs was at the time headed by Constitutional lawyer and then Kabete MP Paul Muite, while current House Speaker Kenneth Marende was a member. The report, in whose preparation Marende participated as an MP, then also points fingers at other ‘critical witnesses’ against whom it recommends further investigations. They include Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, Nyeri PNU activist and businesswoman Mary Wambui and her daughter Winnie Wangui, businessmen Raju Sanghani, and Kamlesh Pattni (mastermind of the infamous Goldenberg scandal).

The committees also recommended prosecution against the then Nairobi PCIO Isaiah Osugo who has since been elevated to become the Commissioner of Prisons. Also recommended for prosecution is David Kimaiyo, who was the Director of Operations at Police headquarters, and Patrick Lumumba, then OCPD Gigiri. Those recommended for prosecution had refused to obey summons to give evidence.

Property of the house

After the Ninth Parliament failed to debate and adopt the report in 2007, those linked to the saga may have assumed that it was buried forever, but Marende on Wednesday killed those hopes, when he ruled any report once tabled in Parliament becomes property and record of the House.

"A report, once made to the House and ordered to be printed cannot be withdrawn except by a further order of the House," said Marende when he ruled on a notice of Motion by Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara who wanted to re-introduce the report for debate.

The report details the illegalities committed by the Artur brothers and attempts at official cover-ups. But what stands out is the attention the committees gave to the raid at The Standard Group offices in which the Armenian thugs participated.

According to the report, the raid was sanctioned with the knowledge of "the highest level of Government".

The committee reached the conclusion that Kibaki must have been briefed on the raid after Michuki told them it was undertaken to safeguard the President’s image. When he appeared before the team, Michuki reportedly said The Standard had lined up articles that would have impinged on the person of the President.

Michuki, according to the report, said the stories contained allegations some Government officers were involved in tribal clashes and terrorist bombings. "It was not a raid. It was a Government operation," the minister told the committee, forcing them to reach the conclusion that there must have been a bigger conspiracy surrounding the Arturs.

"It was a further revelation that indeed something was not right about the Artur brothers, and that in fact the minister’s reference to the raid as a "Government operation" was a conspiracy that was underlying the presence of the brothers stay in Kenya and what they could possibly have been doing," says the report.

At the time, Michuki said the Standard Group had "rattled a snake" and had to face the consequences. Was the raid meant to pave way for the emergence of some friendly, non-rattling, compliant media?

What was the bigger conspiracy that led to this flagrant attack on media rights and freedom? Was there really a threat to public security or did individuals use this as a pretext?

Government’s knowledge

The report also adds that a story published by the newspaper on an alleged meeting between Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka, now Vice-President, in 2006 might have triggered the raid. Michuki, the report adds, claimed former Commissioner of Police, Maj-Gen Hussein Ali, knew about the plans to raid the Group’s offices and printing press. The raid was, however, carried out while Ali was out of the country.

"The minister’s admission of the Government’s knowledge and execution of the raid is a clear indictment of the Government’s involvement," the report says. It recommends that Michuki and Murage be removed from public office and prosecuted.

"The Artur brothers clearly demonstrated that they had political connections," says the report. One of the https://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images of people who staged the raid captured on CCTV cameras shows a stunning resemblance to Margaryan, who had been romantically linked to Ms Wangui.

The committee also said the evidence that was presented to them on the Arturs was "manipulated with a view to concealing their true intention of being in Kenya and to protect their sponsors".

What next? Will these kings of impunity face the law? Can they tell their side of the story? The new laws demand reigning of impunity and those mentioned who still hold public office should resign immediately.