Fear of repression and killings ongoing in Kenya as the son of Kenya’s main opposition leader Raila Odinga was found dead Sunday in his home near Nairobi, prompting a major police investigation and minor unrest in the capital, police and media reports said.
Police said Fidel Odinga, 41, who was seen by political observers as a potential successor to his father, returned home on Saturday night after an evening out drinking with friends and was found dead in his bed on Sunday.
“The death… is being treated as unexplained. We are investigating his final movements. A forensic pathologist has been called in and a post-mortem will be conducted to establish the cause of death,” a Kenyan detective said on condition he not be named.
Odinga, a former prime minister, leads the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and is an outspoken critic of Kenyatta’s government. Last month he spearheaded a challenge of controversial anti-terror laws, accusing Kenyatta of turning Kenya into a dictatorship.
The Standard newspaper’s website said reports of Fidel Odinga‘s death sparked a small but violent protest around Nairobi’s Kibera slum. The paper said the protesters pelted motorists with stones and blocked the roads before being dispersed by police.
Meanwhile, a man said to be a witness at the International Criminal Court, ICC, was on Friday found dead under mysterious circumstances in Uasin Gishu County, a week after he disappeared.
The mutilated body of Mr Meshack Yebei was found floating in River Yala in Nandi County, more than 40 kilometres from his Sugoi home. Relatives said he was abducted near Turbo trading centre. The people who allegedly abducted him drove away in two cars.
Shocked family members yesterday accused security officers of carrying out shoddy investigations after they reported the matter at Turbo and Eldoret police stations.
Rights Activist Ken Wafula said Mr Yebei was an ICC witness, but he was not under the witness protection programme.
Mr Wafula claimed the killing was State-sponsored and called for protection of the remaining witnesses. “There is a hit squad out to eliminate ICC witnesses and human rights officials accused of coaching witnesses to testify before the Hague-based court,” said Mr Wafula.
Mr Yebei’s family termed his death political. The deceased was a businessman and politician. He contested the Kapsagoi Ward civic seat in 2002 but lost. In 2007, he was the PNU coordinator for Turbo, and in 2013, he vied as an independent candidate for member of county assembly.
“Why is it that the police kept on misleading us after our brother disappeared? They even claimed he was safe,” said Mr Yebei’s sister, Ms Clara Yebei.
The Rev Moses Kisorio of Christ Is the Way Ministry, who is also Mr Yebei’s elder brother, said the deceased left to buy water for his child who was being treated at a Turbo dispensary on December 28. Two hours later, he had not returned. His wife went out to look for him but in vain.
