and GACHOKA KING'ORI

The Akiwumi Commission wound up yesterday after 11 months of hearing evidence on the tribal clashes that rocked the country between 1991 and 1998.

The commission, which has sat for 194 days in Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and Nairobi, has been sued in the High Court by a former district officer and the Nakuru Catholic Diocese.

Mr Francis Gitaari and the church are seeking to have the commission ordered to let them tender evidence.

They want a reversal of the Akiwumi team's decision last month to restrict their evidence to one written paragraph from a 25-paragraph affidavit.

Commission Chairman Akilano Akiwumi said the tribunal, constituted by the President last July 1, would now embark on compiling its findings and recommendations. The team has two weeks to compile and present its findings.

The President extended the body's mandate by two months in March in a special Kenya Gazette notice.

The Law Society of Kenya was given until June 18 to submit its written submissions to the commission's joint secretaries. Justice Akiwumi turned down LSK lawyer Haroun Ndubi's request to have the hearings extended so the attorney-general could be summoned to give evidence.

Mr Ndubi recalled that LSK had applied to the commission seeking to have AG Amos Wako summoned to testify.

LSK, Mr Ndubi said, wanted the AG to explain to the commission why he discontinued a case in which city lawyer Mbuthi Gathenji had been charged with publishing alarming statements in connection with the Rift Valley clashes in 1997.

The AG was also expected to explain why he discontinued the prosecution of a case Mr Gathenji, on behalf of some clashes victims, had privately prosecuted Cabinet Minister William ole Ntimama.

Justice Akiwumi said, however, it was unnecessary to summon the AG as the commission had sufficient evidence.

Yesterday, the commission heard evidence from its last witness, Mr Lawrence Chemarun, who said he had carried out research into the causes of clashes between his community, the Sabaot, and the Bukusu in 1992 in Trans Nzoia.

On Wednesday, a key witness recounted how he received a threatening call on Thursday morning over the evidence he gave at the commission.

Mr John Christopher Namai, a senior assistant commissioner of police, said an unidentified caller warned him to "tread carefully or else you will never know when you will be hit".

The call, on his private line, was made at 7.50 am. At 8.30 am, Mr Namai called the criminal investigations director, Mr Francis Sang, to inform him.

Mr Namai made the revelation after Minister of State Julius Sunkuli finished cross-examining him on his intelligence report in which the minister was adversely mentioned.

When Mr Justice Akiwumi asked Mr Namai's lawyer if he wished to cross-examine his client, Mr Odhiambo Makoloo said: "I do not wish to cross-examine my client. Only that I have an issue to raise once every counsel is through with Mr Namai."

But the chairman gave priority to the issue, upon which Mr Makoloo produced Mr Namai's letter to the CID boss.

Said Mr Makoloo: "We are all trying to assist the country to come to terms with some momentous event in its history and such calls are not only intimidating to everybody ... If it is allowed to continue, then we are all wasting time. The call constitutes a criminal offence and we are taking it very seriously."

On Wednesday, Mr Namai told the commission how a series of transfers had been hurriedly effected on him in the middle of crucial investigations.

He said he was not particularly comfortable when he was transferred from Coast Province, where he was investigating the perpetrators of the Likoni skirmishes. He was given less than 24 hours to leave for Nairobi.

Before going to the Coast as the provincial criminal investigations officer, Mr Namai was investigating people named in letters confiscated from lawyer Mbuthi Gathenji, who was arrested and charged with publishing alarming statements.

Mr Gathenji testified before the commission, however, that the said documents were statements written by military officers who had allegedly confessed to having been recruited to cause chaos.

On arrival in Nairobi, Mr Namai was instructed to proceed to Transmara and Gucha districts to investigate clashes which had just erupted. He told the commission that his terms of reference changed immediately he briefed his boss on the situation on the ground. He could thus not effect any arrests but only collected intelligence reports.

On Tuesday, Mr Namai told the tribunal that he had, the previous day, been removed from the CID department to the (uniformed) police headquarters. He has been undertaking an investigation into the circumstances leading to the arrival and arrest of Kurdish Peoples Party leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan.

The revelation came during the discussion of his intelligence report on the Transmara/Gucha clashes.

The report indicated that Mr Sunkuli had asked about 100 elders and youths belonging to the Siria clan allegedly planning to create chaos in the area in order to pave way for the locals to elect leaders from their community.

The report said the call was issued at a meeting held at Ilkarian Primary School in Lolgarian.

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