Akiwumi Report: Lobby sues DPP, IG, DCI over failure to prosecute masterminds of clashes

Justice Akilano Molade Akiwumi.[File, Standard]

A lobby group has moved to court seeking to force the government to dig into Kenya’s dark past and prosecute persons who were mentioned as the perpetrators of tribal tensions and clashes.

In its case filed before the High Court, the Kenya Legal Trust Fund has sued the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Inspector General of Police (IG) and the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), arguing that they have failed to hunt the financiers and perpetrators of clashes.

They have specifically targeted those who were mentioned in former Judge Akilano Molade Akiwumi’s Judicial Commission of Inquiry report.

In their case filed by Mwaniki Gitahi, they argued that the country has moved on for two decades without accountability and closure.

Gitahi said that failure to deal with the past has continued to haunt dozens of victims whenever the country gets into a political frenzy, such as what is currently happening now.

“The continued inaction perpetuates impunity, undermines the rules of law and poses a real risk of loss of evidence, death of witnesses and permanent obstruction of justice,” argued Gitahi.

Akiwumi died in 2024. The man who proposed a cure for unending politically linked killings and police abuse and brutality went to the grave without seeing at least one politician jailed over plots to kill.

He served the Kenya judiciary for 14 years.  His stint at the bench was warmed up at the High Court, which he served between 1987 and 1993.

He then served as a Court of Appeal Judge for eight years before retirement.

His story is told around the famous Akiwumi Commission, which was appointed by former president Daniel Arap Moi on July 1, 1998, to probe the cause of the clashes in the country since 1991.

Others in the commission were Justices Samuel Bosire and Sarah Ondeyo.

 The trio were tasked to look into the Rift Valley, Western, Coast and North Eastern Provinces clashes.

Their conclusion was that the only way of ending the clashes was to deal with politicians, rogue police officers, including those in the special branch and the provincial administration officials who were implicated.

“If this Report as we are convinced, is taken seriously, then we expect that the actions proposed in this Chapter of this Report, will be taken against the politicians... They must not be allowed to get away with murder, otherwise, they will only live to do the same again tomorrow,” the 362-page document read in part.

 Notably was the contribution of the Law Society of Kenya in the inquiry. The LSK, according to the report had a battery of lawyers who numbered at least 49 but, in the end, gave ‘hot air.’

The LSK had implicated some then senior government officials including former powerful minister Nicholas Biwott.

In addition, the society also roped in then then police inspector Peter Muiruri, claiming that one Omar Masumbuko had confessed that Muiruri was behind clashes in the coast province.

“We did however, insist on Inspector Peter Muiruri being called as a witness before the Judicial Commission as counsel appearing for the Law Society of Kenya did not produce any evidence to establish that any statement of that kind was ever made by Omar Masumbuko, to Inspector Peter Muiruri,” the report continues.

 The commission also noted that despite LSK lawyers participating in questioning at least 331 witnesses, it wrote a letter deemed to have been disappointing and pitiful. The letter was said to depict insincerity and ack of seriousness in the role and reputation of the society.

Akiwumi commission report would thereafter find its way in Kriegler and Waki reports, all of which were also probing violence, especially during elections. Despite the reports, violence and deaths have become part of Kenya’s transition process, but no politician has paid the price.

The lobby now wants the court to intervene and order the police bosses, the DPP to take the report from where it is gathering dust, then prosecute all those who were adversely mentioned. It also prays for supervision from the court.