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Kenya was gripped with fear for two days: If a Cabinet Minister would be killed and his body disposed of in the wild, who was safe?
But more was to come. In a prepared autopsy report made public much later, Chief Government Pathologist Jason Ndakai Kaviti, claimed that Dr Ouko, traveled for seven kilometres, neatly arranged his personal belongings, shot himself in the head and stomach, then set his body on fire and as a final act of death, lay on his back and died.
On February 24, 1990, ten days after the Minister's grisly murder, Dr Robert Ouko was laid to rest at an emotional and politically charged ceremony at his Koru home.
The air was heavy with anger, the tears in the eyes of the family members betrayed their love for a man most of them described as a quiet and a career civil servant more than a politician.
The General Service Unit, a dreaded paramilitary unit of the Kenya Police Service subdued angry crowds, but a chants directed at top government officials could not be drowned by the mean looking policemen.
"I have never seen such a number of GSU personnel, the red berets were everywhere, the university students were chanting, you killed him, you burnt him now eat him," recalls Caleb Atemi.
It took a grieving Christabel Ouko, the Minister's widow to calm them down. Retired President Moi pensively watched. In Kisumu town, several people were injured in a clash with anti-riot police officers, there were tales of women raped and some thrown into boiling sufurias of porridge in Nyalende slums.
With tears and the sound of clubs on the backs of fleeing residents of Kisumu, Dr Robert Ouko's remains remained behind, six feet under in a section of his expansive home in Muhoroni. It was the end of an illustrious career of a man who so eloquent and one who would have played a major role in the politics of Luo nyanza.
The death of Dr Robert Ouko did not end with him in the grave. Instead, it opened up a new chapter of a high level cover-up, blackmail, murder and controversial theories.
