How students who fail KCSE end up on degree courses

Form Four graduates with grades as low as D are gaining express admission to some local private universities.

A Nation investigation has unearthed the serious breach in university admissions through which a candidate who scored a mean grade of D plain in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) can obtain an undergraduate degree in a record four years or less.

It means one who scores the grade can end up graduating at the same time as another who scores an A plain and is admitted through the Joint Admissions Board.

The investigation that is likely to give credence to employer complaints that institutions are churning out incompetent graduates found out that many of the 36 universities and colleges competing for students have devised a system through which those who failed are put through a three-month programme and afterward offered straight entry to an undergraduate degree programme.

However, Commission for Higher Education (CUE) secretary David Some said Tuesday that degrees obtained through such means were not worth the paper they were written on.

The commission, he said, was aware of many private universities that had admitted unqualified students.

Such graduates would be shocked when they seek jobs in public offices as their degrees would not be endorsed, he warned.

RUDE SHOCK

It means that those in universities studying for degree courses but scored C plain or below and did not first go through government-endorsed certificate and diploma courses are in for a rude shock.

“That is the law, that is the regulation, that is the standard and that is the policy, according to our Constitution and even international standards,” said Prof Some.

The head of the education standards council said many institutions of higher learning had devised mechanisms of duping Kenyans  that they can offer short  pre-university courses for prospective students who scored less than C+.

“That is wrong because we will declare the certificates null and void,” he said. “These are just ways of looking for money but then as a commission, we are guided by the law and as long as that is the case, then all those who did not meet the prerequisite conditions stand to lose.”

Prof Some was categorical that the only recognised path for those who did not score the minimum grade of C+ and wanted to pursue degree courses was to first undertake a minimum three-year diploma course, acquire work experience then proceed to undertake a degree course.

“Most Kenyans like taking short-cuts but it is only good that those who know this follow the rightful procedure to avoid future tears when one is seeking a public job,” he stated.

Those who may want to become governors, MPs and President are among those whose papers could be rejected once the commission’s turn to vet them comes, he said.

“Anything less than the required route is a total waste of money that will later come to haunt many of us.”

With a KCSE certificate of C- the Nation was offered a chance, for a former candidate, in most of the private universities.

All that the candidate was asked to pay was Sh50,000 to gain admission to a three-month programme.

Most of the private institutions asked for a Sh1,000 admission fee and in less than five minutes, the candidate would be on the route to acquiring a university degree in less than four years.

This was possible due to the pre-university programme for those who failed to reach the direct university entry grade of C+.

At Presbyterian University, armed with the C– KCSE certificate, the Nation was advised that the student we were applying for would be admitted despite the low marks.

He would be required to go through the pre-university course at the institution’s Kikuyu campus and then join a one-year diploma course before proceeding to a degree course for two years.

The pre-university course entails tuition on Mathematics, English, two science subjects and a bit of introduction to psychology.

At Mt Kenya University, a student with a C – is required to undertake a certificate course for six months. On completion, the student is admitted for a diploma course which takes one year.

The learner will then join an undergraduate course of choice for two and half years.

In total, therefore, a student who failed in KCSE is able to have a degree in four years.

PRE-UNIVERSITY COURSE

At Kenya Methodist University, all the Nation investigators needed was to apply for the pre-university course.

The United States International University would only admit a student with a C– for a degree course after he or she has undertaken a pre-university course from a number of universities they recommend.

Most of the institutions agreed to admit a C– (minus) student on condition he or she completes the pre-university course and scores a GPA mark of above 2.5.

That guarantees admission on the spot. However, in one of the colleges, the student would still be ineligible for admission to sciences like medicine.

“You can take the other business related programmes like Bachelor in Business Management or art-oriented programmes just like any other,” said an official from one of the universities who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Recently, employers complained that students coming out of universities in Kenya were half-baked and could not perform essential functions of the course they studied in the university.

CONDEMNED ENTIRELY

CUE chairman Henry Thairu said the agency was faced with a delicate balancing act between ensuring that quality education was available in Kenya without denying people the right to pursue their dreams.

Those who have not managed to score the requisite grade of a C+ or above should not be condemned entirely but should be afforded the opportunity to access higher education, he said.

“Access and relevance are really the universal  benchmarks of a mature education system and as an institution, our intention is really to ensure even the pre-university programmes are not diluted only to serve the cause for money,” said Prof Thairu.

The charges for this pre-university course ranges between Sh55,000 to Sh60,000 at different universities.

A student with a GPA score of more than 2.5, the equivalent of a C + is guaranteed a place in the undergraduate class despite the KCSE grade.

Election : Uhuru will lose 2017 elections, says Keter

The Jubilee government will lose the next election if it fails to tackle corruption perpetrated by top officials, a member of the coalition has warned.

Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter cited the rail tender controversy, saying President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto may only serve for one term if they do not fire the implicated officials.

Speaking at Lessos Primary school during a thanksgiving ceremony for last year’s KCPE candidates, Mr Keter repeated his claims that taxpayers will lose Sh400 billion in the rail project and said it should be stopped until investigations are complete.

“ Voters may reject the Jubilee government due to corruption. Kenyans are tired of high level corruption which the two leaders must address instead of being misled that Jubilee will rule for 20 years,” said the MP.

The MP also claimed there was skewed employment in the military which he said is dominated by officers from one community while qualified Kenyans from other counties are left out. “For the 10 years under former President Kibaki, several officers from some communities were retired and others started dominating the military.”

Mr Keter said he was ready to table evidence showing that some counties are allocated more slots than other parts of Kenya.

“ Some counties are allocated between 240 to 300 slot in the military while others like Nandi get 30. All 47 counties should be given equal opportunities,” he said.

He also alleged there was a plot within Jubilee to use and dump Mr Ruto. He said the Deputy President was “used” to announce the unpopular news of civil servants’ retrenchments.

Bensouda VS PNU leaders

The fate of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case in The Hague is likely to be determined on Wednesday when the status of the charges facing him are discussed.

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has indicated that her case against President Kenyatta has been weakened by the departure of witnesses and what she says is frustration by Kenyan government red-tape.

However, Ms Bensouda has fired a new warning that despite these setbacks, she was ready to open new prosecutions against other senior PNU officials and prominent Kikuyu politicians and businessmen that she alleges may be criminally liable for crimes committed after the 2007 General Election.

Ms Bensouda, in a new application filed on January 31, 2014, that had previously been marked as confidential, and which the Sunday Nation has seen, did not reveal who the new suspects are.

“The prosecution already has in its possession evidence to show that other senior PNU operatives and prominent Kikuyu politicians and businessmen may be criminally liable for the crimes committed. It would not be proper to go into details of that investigation at this stage,” she says.

She added that the case against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang was “proceeding strongly”.

At least 1,000 people died and more than 600,000 uprooted from their homes in the violence.

THREE MONTHS ADJOURNMENT REQUEST

The Wednesday status conference on President Kenyatta’s case will discuss, among others issues, Ms Bensouda’s request to adjourn the trial for three months so she can carry out further investigations.

In her latest filing, the prosecutor says she no longer considers there to be a prospect of obtaining additional evidence in the President’s case. She further notes that her efforts to interview certain unnamed individuals had not borne fruit.

“The hostile stance of these individuals makes it unlikely that they will provide information useful to a prosecution of the accused,” she says.

She also observes that since her application to adjourn the case, several individuals had approached the prosecution but none had yielded evidence upon which she intends to rely.

Concerning a key witness who had earlier withdrawn his evidence, she states that even if he now agrees to testify his evidence together with other evidence currently in her possession would be insufficient to justify a trial.

While she accuses the government of frustrating her efforts to gather evidence, she acknowledges that even if the government were to agree to cooperate, the information may not yield evidence relevant to the case.

The prosecutor last month admitted that she did not have sufficient evidence to try President Kenyatta and asked the ICC judges to adjourn the case so she can look for more evidence.

President Kenyatta’s defence team then filed a confidential submission requesting the chamber to terminate the proceedings on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The prosecutor has asked the ICC judges to reject the request. She said before the possibility of withdrawing the charges is considered, the judges should first rule on her application for a finding that the Kenya government had failed to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute.

She said this would reward an obstructive government and send a message that the court will allow non-cooperative states to thwart ICC prosecutions. She went on: “Withdrawing the charges now would also reward the accused, who heads the government that has obstructed the court’s work.”

KENYAN POLICE

She accused the government of refusing to facilitate their request to take evidence from Kenyan police officers as well as obstructing access to records.

The prosecutor also claimed that the President’s defence team falsified telephone records data that they intended to use to prove that the prosecution witnesses were lying.

She said her investigators met an unnamed individual who indicated that all telephone records data are normally overwritten after three years.

This, it was argued, implied that data that had been recorded in 2007 or 2008 had obviously been overwritten and that those that had been provided to the court in 2013 were fake.

Further, the prosecutor stated that minutes of the National Security Advisory Committee provided to her had been filtered.

“They produced some, but not all, of the requested documents even though they had given the same minutes without redactions to the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence,” she says.

The prosecution, she added, also asked for President Kenyatta’s financial records since a central allegation against him is that he financed the violence. This, she said, has not been provided by the government.

Ms Bensouda says their relation with the government after President Kenyatta took office had worsened.

“There is no indication that the Kenyatta administration will provide more assistance than the Kibaki administration” says the prosecutor.

She added that many individuals with information had refused to speak with the prosecution despite repeated attempts to contact them.

The prosecutor, for instance, says obtaining cooperation from members of Mungiki sect has been difficult due to the closed nature of the organisation.

“Mungiki members said to have interacted with the accused in person during the PEV were killed or forcibly disappeared,” she said.

“Even where individuals have been willing to meet with the prosecution, many expressed concern that they or their families would be subject to retaliation,” added the prosecutor.

She says the withdrawal of witnesses concerned that testifying against the President would expose them and their families to retaliation.

“Three witnesses – 5, 66 and 426 – have been withdrawn from the prosecution’s witness list on this basis,” she said.

Winnie left out of Mandela’s will

Johannesburg

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, has been left out of the late anti-apartheid icon’s will.

South Africa’s popular online newspaper, the Daily Maverick, said Winnie, who was divorced from Mandela in 1996, did not get anything from the will of South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

“Although Winnie was regularly around Mandela in the later years of his life, and had a prominent place at family events, he did not leave her anything,” it said.

“This is likely to infuriate Winnie, who resents not being acknowledged for her role in supporting Mandela and keeping his legacy alive during his imprisonment…and yet, in his final act from the grave, Mandela let Winnie go.”

FAMILY NEEDS

In his will, Mandela named his widow, Graça Machel, and his two daughters, Makaziwe and Zenani, as the family’s representatives in making important decisions on the family’s needs.

(READ: Mandela left estate to his wife Graca)

Winnie, Mandela’s second wife, suggested in a recent statement that Makaziwe should run family affairs in concert with her own two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi, earning the wrath of the AbaThembu royal house to which Mandela belonged.

Questions that linger in the minds of many analysts following the release of the will are: Why did Mandela, who earned worldwide respect as a man who harboured no resentment, not forgive Winnie? Why did he exclude her from his will? What will be Winnie’s reaction?

“If Madiba was able to forgive the apartheid lords who jailed him for 27 years, why didn’t he do the same to his second wife?” one analyst wondered.

LEFT ESTATE TO STAFF

On Monday, South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke read out to the media excerpts from Mandela’s will, which spelt out the devolution of his estate to his family, staff and education institutions. (READ: Mandela estate worth estimated $4.1M)

Mandela executed the will on October 12, 2004, a few months after announcing his retirement from public life at the age of 85. Three months earlier, he had flown to Bangkok to speak at the 15th International Aids Conference.

He was therefore able to declare in the document that he was “in health of body and of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding, and capable of doing any act that requires thought, judgment and reflection”.

Anyone wanting to contest the will has to challenge that particular declaration and argue that Mandela was not of sound mind when he drew up the will. But an appraisal of the executive summary released by the executors reveals that Mandela thought hard about what he wanted to leave to whom from his estimated 46 million rand (KSh357 million) estate.

According to the Daily Maverick, there are also insights into his line of thought in terms of how the estate is disbursed. Mandela’s love and respect for Graca Machel, who kept vigil by his bedside as his health deteriorated, is evident in the will.

Otieno Kajwang’ Told Off on ‘Loyalty to ODM’ as KEY selection YARDSTICK

In response to Otieno Kajwang’s red-line stance on ODM Party Loyalty, and the idea of ‘selecting’ those most loyal to the party, an ODM party supporter with some historical facts put forth a candid rebuttal of Kajwang’ assertions.

According to blogger Dikembe Disembe, ODM has sometimes rewarded those whose loyalty could not be ascertained, like in the case of current Migori County Senator Dr. Wilfred Machage. Here’s the response:

ODM PARTY LOYALTY:

How loyal was Dr Machage when he was selected by the party instead of Mr. Magaiwa in Migori County? Mr. Magaiwa had stood with the party during its worst moments. Was in ODM in 2007 at a time Machage was in PNU and even hosted Kibaki in Kuria. Was in the “yes team” at a time Machage joined Ruto in the “no camp”.

When Machage realised the new constitutional order had changed politics on the ground, he jumped to ODM, was given both the orange cap and the T-shirt and the certificate. Magaiwa was more popular with the larger Luo voters in Migori County than Dr Machage. He was the people’s choice.Did Dr Machage bring the Kuria vote in reciprocity? ODM trampled on the people’s choice and lost ‘part’ of the people. And by the way, Magaiwa was also a Kuria, just like Machage.

We can spend weeks AND eons discussing what democracy means in ODM but we won’t agree. What kind of democracy brought back Machage in parliament, as a senator, on ODM ticket? And you tell us about party loyalty? Seriously? Are we fools? Kajwang’? When ODM messes grassroots elections, voter apathy ensures. It’s not like Nyanza has no numbers. Those numbers get weakened by party actions prior to elections.

Nyanza loves Raila Odinga but may not like every other hanger-on who prop up Odinga’s name having bought off, or been ‘awarded’, an ODM certificate in Nairobi. Otherwise Prof Ayiecho Olweny would be the current MP in Muhoroni. Nyanza, and indeed other regions, too have an opinion about democracy it can express. We thought that these coming polls would offer a complete break with the past; but when people like Kajwang’ still talk of selection, it beats logic.

 Now, Kajwang’ may just be bullying around, but Carson said it emphatically, “people have reputations, people have histories. . .” so when Kajwang’ aims less, the question is, can party detractors form some unfavourable perception that in Kajwang’ there are the muted thoughts of Raila Odinga? By the way, nobody is bothered about Kajwang’. Party opponents don’t care about Kajwang’.

 They care about Raila Odinga. Kajwang’ wasn’t going to form any government. But his (statements) are the kind of mindless, feckless chatter which brought on us that curse – giniwasekao kata gweno ong’eyo – while nothing was happening on the ground. We know, because history has repeated it, that whenever internal processes are fake, or plainly robotic, people somehow rebel.

With proliferation of the FM radio and TV and newspapers and a generation more literate and living in a new century where information is a click away, revolutionised by the internet. Democracy itself is lived and experienced in nanoseconds. It’s like what’s going on in the Olympics. I do not need to be in Sochi to have a ‘mediated opinion’ that Russia is ill-prepared. You see it live; because this generation tweets it. Then it is taken over by the media and when online, it is yours. It doesn’t have to be what it is. It only needs to be what it looks like.

I have shared moments with many who voted the Jubilee Alliance because of what ‘it looked like’. We also know, because it is their in the “duck test”, that when it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, then the bird in question is a duck. It can’t be a penguin, It can’t be a pelican. It cannot be a dove. IT IS A DUCK.

You know why some of us get frustrated: because ducks can’t win elections. Ducks are too slow. Ducks are too pedestrian. Just because ducks too lay eggs doesn’t make them eagles. But ducks can be resilient. Unlike their cousins, the now extinct dodo, ducks endure. So here are two paradoxes of the duck: It endures but it can’t win. It can multiply but it can’t win. And the duck is the most loyal. It has nothing to lose. Its loyalty pays.

 How then do we do away with the duck. First, we can’t change it to be anything else. It will remain a duck. I have an idea: Let’s rear more eaglets, to eat more ducklings. We can’t do away with the ducks completely, else they become extinct, yet we still need their ‘loyal input’. But we can reduce their number! Those with ears, let them hear.

Kisumu ‘Heckling’ Reports part of TNA Media Propaganda

Picture: Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga getting a hand to climb stairs up the podium to address Kisumu residents who have been protesting for the last three days over erection of  a Hindu statue in the town.

I have taken time off my busy schedule to respond to a matter of media confabulations that Raila was heckled in Kisumu.

I watched the video footage, and nothing can be further from the truth. Raila wasn’t being heckled. It was just an impromptu meeting or an open air Town Hall if you like where speakers were not moderated. It’s the reason we raise hands in class or town halls. That’s because human beings tend to behave in a disorganized way when there aren’t rules set down to governing them.

First of all Raila is Kenya’s most popular leader.  He is the reason the Ipsos Synovate Directors were threatened with the revival of a matter of more than 10 yrs ago in which the company was acquired without the Competition Authority being notified.

Jubilee has been in power for 1 yr now, but it’s only after Ipsos did a poll that puts Raila and ODM in a commanding 54% lead, and Cord at 63% that TNA decided to counter that by enlisting the services of Strategic PR, in a poll whose sole intention was to portray Raila and ODM as waning political entities.

Raila despite being rigged out of office continues to be a decent, dignified and globally respected leader whose foresight and Mandelaisque persona earned him a place as the keynote speaker at the star studded Liberal International Convention attended by the who’s who. Raila’s diary is fully booked.

The Liberal International invited him to officially open its convention held in South Africa because with Mandela gone, Raila remains the most celebrated African visionary who has gotten it right on matters that the world Liberal movement cares deeply about.

And the Sikh Monument was a major test on Raila’s cool. He could have chosen to be a populist and just yell “hii monument tutachoma kesho” but as a responsible leader, who understands the dictates and tenets of freedom of religion and the rights of the minority, he maintained his cool, portraying a man who chose to endure what was fodder to the media all in defense of religious freedoms.

The world and even the US went through numerous upheavals which culminated into this concept called Religious freedom, through the agitation of folks like Thomas Jefferson- a man I respect for getting it right in all his major writings even at a time when his positions would not have been popular in the 16^th C America.

And for Jefferson’s fidelity to what is right- his push for religious freedoms was repulsed by the media and religious fundamentalists as “the views of an infidel who “writes aghast the truths of God’s words; who makes not even a profession of Christianity; who is without Sabbaths; without the sanctuary, and without so much as a decent external respect for the faith and worship of Christians.”

3 Centuries later Raila Odinga- a Kenyan leader is like Thomas Jefferson confronted with a similar challenge of telling his people the truth about religious tolerance. Because religious freedom is about letting Rashid and his Muslim brothers sing in the streets during Hajj so long as we stay out of terror, or Christians erect a “Mary mother of God holding Jesus statue” outside their church in my home town of Kitale.

The $80m Question is- would the Christian supermajority in Kisumu have protested had a “Mary Mother of God statue holding baby Jesus” or Jaramogi statue been erected at Kondele? The answer is No!

Folks that’s tyranny of majority analogous to the evil of “tyranny of numbers”, by an arrogant  people who are currently victims of the same Jubilee doctrine, ramming their beliefs down the throats of minority Sikhs. So what will they tell the majority Kikuyus and Kalenjins who continue to impose their illegitimate domination on them driven by their appetite for what they without apologies call tyranny?

You see. It’s bad when it’s you the victim, but OK when you are the villain. At this rate Luos are taking away their moral authority to complain against “Tyranny of Numbers” because they have demonstrated by this small act that they too can be vindictive should they craft a Tyranny of Numbers like Coalition.

I think this Sikh Monument debacle portrayed vintage Raila as a leader who can stand up to his people when they are wrong and avoid the temptation of playing to the gallery.

Instead he appeared to say “I don’t worship, wont bow before your “god” but will respect and uphold your dignity and respect to worship the god of your choice, but I will seek a way out, if in the expression of your religious rights public peace and harmony will be affected”.

That’s a perfect mix of Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s deontological ethics. That yes I will be consistent because am guided by certain progressive principles, and live with the consequences, but I will also seek a middle ground solution that addresses the concerns of the “greatest number” of disparate parties.

That’s what leadership is. Standing firm for what’s right, and even paying the media consequences for it, even when the political cost is too high. Raila is the man in whom Eldorobos, Jemps and even Kikuyus alike can entrust their lives to. A once in a lifetime political leader willing to rise above the ethnic chauvinism of his ODM Luo Nyanza leaders in embrace of a national image for the nation’s single largest political and most national party, ODM. A leader who can not only unite the nation but also defend the rights of the minority Sikh population even when it means losing his own base political support. A leader whose election to office for 2 consecutive terms has been vetoed by the incumbency, but still accepted to move on in the interest of peace…who else can have a larger than life heart like you Agwambo? Can any other leader ready to pay the price for consistency, like Raila Amolo Odinga, please stand up? Zero! Watch this space

Rashid Wanjala- Canadian Based Legal Analyst

BUNGOMA: Shock has gripped Lutonyi village in the outskirts of Kimilili town, after a man was hacked to death by unknown people on Friday night. And a woman was gang-raped by the thugs who also injured five other people, with three of them sustaining serious head injuries, in different parts of the town. The chilling murder has sparked fears of the re-emergence of a killer gang that terrorised Bungoma County residents last year. This latest insecurity incident comes hardly a week after a man who was terrorising residents of Khwriroro Village in the same constituency, while impersonating a police officer, was arrested. According to family of the deceased 39-year-old man, they found his lifeless body that had deep cuts on Saturday morning at a mortuary of private hospital in the town. “A search for him early Saturday morning at the local Kimilili District Hospital, after we heard some people who had been attacked by thugs were at the medical facility, was fruitless. We found my son’s lifeless body lying at the mortuary. I do not know why they killed him yet he was a poor man with no money,” his mother said. Bungoma County Police Commander Charles Munyoli said police have launched investigations and they will not rest until the culprits are brought to book. Local leaders who spoke to The Sunday on Standard led by Seme Sunguti, the Executive Secretary Kenya National Union of Teachers Bungoma North branch condemned the murder and decried the rising insecurity in the constituency.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/thecounties/article/2000104250/fear-grips-kimilili-village-as-man-killed-woman-gang-raped

Fear grips Kimilili village as man killed, woman gang-raped Updated Sunday, February 9th 2014 at 13:11 GMT +3 0 inShare By DANIEL PSIRMOI and ROBERT WANYONYI BUNGOMA: Shock has gripped Lutonyi village in the outskirts of Kimilili town, after a man was hacked to death by unknown people on Friday night. And a woman was gang-raped by the thugs who also injured five other people, with three of them sustaining serious head injuries, in different parts of the town. The chilling murder has sparked fears of the re-emergence of a killer gang that terrorised Bungoma County residents last year. This latest insecurity incident comes hardly a week after a man who was terrorising residents of Khwriroro Village in the same constituency, while impersonating a police officer, was arrested. According to family of the deceased 39-year-old man, they found his lifeless body that had deep cuts on Saturday morning at a mortuary of private hospital in the town. “A search for him early Saturday morning at the local Kimilili District Hospital, after we heard some people who had been attacked by thugs were at the medical facility, was fruitless. We found my son’s lifeless body lying at the mortuary. I do not know why they killed him yet he was a poor man with no money,” his mother said. Bungoma County Police Commander Charles Munyoli said police have launched investigations and they will not rest until the culprits are brought to book. Local leaders who spoke to The Sunday on Standard led by Seme Sunguti, the Executive Secretary Kenya National Union of Teachers Bungoma North branch condemned the murder and decried the rising insecurity in the constituency.
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/thecounties/article/2000104250/fear-grips-kimilili-village-as-man-killed-woman-gang-raped

Kenya: A State House official is missing

A State House official is missing; now workers are in panic mode, who next? That’s the question.
STANDARD NEWSPAPER: More than a month since Albert Muriuki – a deputy presidential adviser based at State House – was reported missing, investigations are yet to establish his whereabouts.
Mr Muriuki, who deputises former Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed as presidential adviser on constitutional affairs is reported to have gone missing on December 30 last year. His mother Naomi Kathure says she received a call from her first born son on December 24, 2013, and everything seemed normal as they talked about their separate plans for Christmas Day.
Muriuki made an appeal to his mother; he wanted a Sh50,000 loan to fund his Christmas trip to his grandfather’s home in Meru, where he planned to celebrate the day.
“Casually, I told him I could not raise the amount, explaining that I had just sent his younger brother money for an air ticket from the US. I told him I could only raise between Sh5,000 and Sh10,000,” said Dr Kathure in interview with The Standard on Sunday at a Nyeri hotel.
What followed was a brief text from her son telling her to disregard the loan request since he had found a way of sorting himself out. Muriuki, fondly referred to as “Muriu” by close relatives, later sent a merry Christmas message to his mother.
Columbia Law School
“But what surprised me most is that despite him knowing his brother, Evans Kimathi, would be arriving after Christmas Day, he wrote to me and asked me to greet him. The message also included the words ‘Goodbye mum’, which appeared unusual to me since he has never told me goodbye,” said Dr Kathure.
“I replied to find out whether he had got the money, but the text went unanswered as did subsequent calls,” added Kathure.
“My son’s phone then went off. I was told by his colleague called Patricia Gatweri that he called her on December 30, 2013,” said the grief stricken mother.
On the same day, Kathure, a senior Nursing lecturer at Dedan Kimathi University in Nyeri, unsuccessfully tried to contact him since he was scheduled to host his cousins at his mother’s home in Nyeri town. She relocated to Nyeri after a short stint in the US, where she moved after being uprooted from her Eldoret home where she had lived for 22 years.
Muriuki got the job in the Office of the President in October last year, two years after he arrived back in the country from the US, where he was pursuing a master’s degree on International Law. Before coming back home, he had worked as an intern at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
He graduated from the prestigious Columbia Law School in 2011, and after his arrival in Kenya, he worked at Ahmednasir, Abdikadir and Co Advocates before he secured the State House job. According to Gatweri, Muriuki called him on December 30, and they spoke for a while, but about nothing in particular.
“We spoke on generalities, greetings and about work, we would have spoken more were it not for the fact that I was busy in the kitchen as I prepared to leave the house,” said Gatweri.
She described Muriuki as a jovial person before he left for the US where he did his master’s degree but as reserved when he returned to the country. Reserved and quiet “I grew up with him and so I knew him as a jovial person, but when he came back after about four years in the US, he was reserved and quiet and therefore it was difficult to understand what was in his mind at most times,” said Gatweri. Interestingly, on the same December 30, Muriuki allegedly visited Kalee Cafe in Nairobi, which is owned by his uncle (Kathure’s brother), a day after his mother had sent a relative to check on Muriuki’s residence at Kirinyaga Cooperative flats in Westlands, where the security guards said they had last seen him on December 24.
“Workers at Kalee Cafe told me that Muriuki came and asked if I had showed up at the cafe, they say he was smartly dressed and since then he has not been seen,” said the mother. Her fears were compounded when the presidential adviser failed to report back to work at State House, Nairobi on January 8. “I was now more worried, I contacted some of his colleagues and they told me he was not at his work place.
Two days later, I asked my nephews, Mwenda Kigunda and Andrew to break into his house and check whether Muriuki could be inside,” she said. Hospitals and mortuaries
“They only found his identity card, bank cards, smart phone, laptop and an appointment letter to his State House job on his bed. I then asked them to make a report of a missing person at Central Police Station in Nairobi,” she added.
The family realised that Muriuki’s passport was missing, and they hence conducted a search with the Immigration department, but were informed that no such person had travelled out of the country. They later discovered that the passport was placed under custody of another lawyer, Ms C Njuguna, alongside his other academic credentials.
“What went through my mind later is that he could have left the house and went to commit suicide elsewhere, or could even have been abducted. Together with other family members we have made endless trips to hospitals and mortuaries,” she said. She approached Abdikadir for help.
“I respect Abdikadir because he encouraged me and helped me a lot, especially in meeting CID director Ndegwa Muhoro and Interior Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo, all who took my matter seriously. Muhoro instructed his officers to investigate the matter and I recorded statements with him,” said Kathure.
Kathure is only left to wonder where her son disappeared to and why. “I am personally disturbed. Since his disappearance, I became confused. I do not concentrate. I fall sick time and again. I am totally traumatised,” she said. She says she has been calling the police almost on a daily basis while expecting a positive remark but all in vain. “I am requesting anybody with information about him to help me. I am suffering, and if he is somewhere I request him to get back to us because we love him and are in agony,” she said. Abdikadir said he had received the report of Muruiki’s disappearance and that the CID was handling the matter. “The young man was working in our office and I heard from the mother that he has not been seen at home, the last time I saw him was during the festive season,” said Abdikadir.
The Central Police Station in Nairobi OCPD Senior Superintendent of Police, Patrick Oduma said he was not aware of the case though there were many such cases reported in the police station. “We receive so many such cases. I will look into it to find out if it was reported to the police station,” said Mr Oduma.