Baraka Karama @ PeopleDailyKe
Today is 26 years since the mysterious disappearance and murder of Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko. And the shock and anguish that hit the country as the tragedy unfolded has yet to heal — his wife, Cristabel, who is still reluctant to talk about the matter even as his younger brother Maurice Seda called for justice.
Speaking to the People Daily, she said she does not want to open old wounds. “It is many years since my husband died under unclear circumstances and my brother and I would not wish to speak about something that will only cause pain, I am sorry I don’t want to comment on the matter,” she said.
Seda said it is sad that time and again investigations, commissions of inquiries and committees have been set up by successive regimes to find out who or what killed the minister but the suspects have not been brought to book “We would like to know who killed our brother.
We have been in so many commissions but nothing has been done. We are still waiting and hoping that the truth will come out,” said Seda. Born on March 1931, Ouko served as Foreign Affairs minister from 1979 to 1983 and from 1988 to 1990. He served in the colonial period through the presidencies of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi.
He was MP for Kisumu and a cabinet minister, holding the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation by 1990. His remains were found on February 13, 1990 at the foot of Got Alila hills. Seda claimed three police officers had roughed up the former minister near Otonglo market a few months before he disappeared.
“I was with my brother and his bodyguard in the same vehicle. We were on our way to the market from Nyahera, when the officers ordered us to stop. They knew he was a minister but still insisted that he must get out of the vehicle and be frisked,” he said.
He said a bitter exchange between the minister and the police officers ensued forcing his bodyguard, Gordon Onyango, to cock his gun. “The bodyguard was annoyed and questioned the motive behind the search.
After a few minutes, they left and we later drove to the then Kisumu District Commissioner’s residence to explain what happened,” he said. His former bodyguard said that it was not normal for police officers to stop a minister’s vehicle.
“I still do not understand what might have made them do that because they knew him very well,” said Onyango. A month later, reports that the former minister had disappeared from his Koru home emerged. Onyango said details of the fateful day are still fresh in his mind.
“I called his number so many times but nobody answered. Finally his maid, Selina Were, answered. He told me how she was awakened at about 3 am by a noise similar to a door being slammed shut but sufficiently loud enough to startle her awake” and that she saw a white car turning at the bottom of the minister’s driveway before being driven off.
I then rushed to Kisumu District Commissioner’s residence to inform him that my boss was missing but surprisingly, he did not take the information with the seriousness it deserved and that surprised me,” he said.
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