Jacob Juma's murder calls for proper investigation

Primarily because it is the duty of the State to protect the individual, Kenyans are looking to the Government to offer answers to the heinous murder of Jacob Juma, a Nairobi-based businessman. Mr Juma was shot dead on Thursday night by yet-to-be-identified gunmen while on his way home.

Until credible investigations prove otherwise, it would be hard to convince the country that Mr Juma’s murder was just like any other crime committed in the city.

This is informed by the fact that the deceased has been a high-profile blogger who over time has been very critical of the Government, especially on the Eurobond where Sh140 billion is alleged to be missing, despite Government denials.

On many occasions on his Twitter account, Juma bandied words with known personalities and days before his murder, he had explicitly mentioned people he suspected were conspiring to murder him over his stand on corruption.

It is that post that has given reason to those opposed to murder as a medium to silence critics, to believe there is more than meets the eye in Mr Juma’s murder.

The danger in this reasoning is that public anger is directed at senior Government officials where they might be innocent of the insinuations being made against them.

It is against this backdrop that the police must drop their lackadaisical approach and the routine ‘no stone shall be left unturned’ rhetoric and move with speed to identify and prosecute those responsible for Juma’s cold-blooded murder.

The imperative of this is even more apparent considering we are entering into a tense electioneering period where the death could be exploited by politicians to score political points or inflame the public. The Government invested Sh15 billion in security surveillance cameras, which we hope will assist in solving the mystery.