Gem MP, Jakoyo Midiwo, who last Saturday sensationally declared that he knew of a plot involving foreign mercenaries to assassinate Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, has recorded a statement at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Kiambu Road’s Mazingara Complex. He said, “I have given the police all the information that I have” but he would not reveal how he got the “information” although he says it is “credible”. We have been this way before, says the Kenya Forum, and it does not bode well.

Mr Midiwo turned up of the Investigations Bureau just after 2.00pm yesterday to be interviewed by the head of the Bureau, Mohammed Amin. He was accompanied by his lawyer Mr James Orengo and several ODM MPs.

Two hours later Midiwo reappeared to talk to waiting journalists. He said he had “told the police all they need to know” and that he stood by his explosive statement made at the weekend. He also told journalists that he was “not here to discuss those details with you”.

Well the latter point is fair enough. There was certainly no need for Midiwo to tell the press all that he had said to the police, indeed it would have been improper if he had done so but if he has not, as reported, told the investigating officers of the bases for his allegations, that is of great concern.

RAILA ODINGA MURDER PLOT: FACTS, GOSSIP OR POLITICAL INTRIGUE

In Kenya we have been this way before, the way of allegations being levelled by people giving testimony that they did not have to corroborate with facts or supporting evidence. The Kenya Forum has, for example, highlighted such instances before.

Valentinus Ujure Kopipo was one such example in relation to both the murder of Julie Ward and allegations about tribal clashes (see the articles on John Ward, the Murder of Julie Ward, Jonathan Moi and the Nairobi Law Monthly, March 7, March 8 and March 21, and ‘The KHRC Report Part 5: Kiliku, Akiwumi, Tribal Clashes and the Faces of Impunity’, Sept 12, 2011). The latter article also reported the case of the infamous ‘Shinyalu witness’.

Similarly, in the past we have exposed the scandalous way in which “star witness” Marianne Briner-Mattern was allowed over a number of years to much increasingly lurid and fanciful allegations over the murder of Kenya’s Foreign Minister, Dr Robert Ouko, without challenge or cross-examination (see ‘The Murder of Dr Robert Ouko: Why it Matters and What Really Happened’, Feb. 6, 2012 and follow the links).

Jakoyo Midiwo said after his chat with CID officers that, “the life of any citizen including the Prime Minister cannot be taken lightly. This is a serious matter!”

Midiwo is quite right, the allegation he has levelled is a very serious matter. All the more need for it to be proven to based on fact, not gossip or political intrigue. He should have told the police the source of his allegation.