Journalists and Family Members Suspect Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto May be Linked to Editor’s Murder, According to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Nairobi, May 1, 2015: A Publisher-Editor based in Eldoret, Kenya, John Kituyi, was murdered by unknown assailants on Thursday, April 30, 2015. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on authorities in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret to do their utmost to identify and prosecute the killers.
Kituyi was walking home from work at around 7:30 p.m. when assailants on a motorcycle approached him, according to news reports and the journalist’s family members and local journalists who spoke to CPJ.The attackers hit Kituyi repeatedly with a blunt object and seized his phone, but did not take his money or his watch, the sources said. The journalist died from his injuries-which included a severe back wound and bruises all over his body-despite being rushed to Eldoret Hospital, according to news reports.
Kituyi, 63, was the editor and publisher of the Mirror Weekly, a privately owned newspaper based in Eldoret with a regional focus. He had previously worked as the bureau chief for the private daily Standard in Eldoret, but quit to launch the Mirror Weekly in 1995, local journalists told CPJ. His articles focused primarily on regional politics in Western Kenya, but he also covered national issues.
Three local journalists and a family membertold CPJ they suspected Kituyi may have been targeted in connection with a story that ran in the Mirror Weekly last week called “Now ICC plot to jail Ruto.” The story described the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and alleged officialinterference with prosecution witnesses. Ruto, who has been charged with crimes against humanity, is accused of organizing the deadly violence that followed the December 2007 elections, in which more than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
Since the ICC case began in Kenya, witnesses have been killed and journalists have been forced to go into hiding or flee the country, according to news reports and CPJ research.
“We condemn the murder of editor and publisher John Kituyi,” said CPJ East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes. “Authorities in Eldoret must work efficiently and thoroughly to prosecute the killers and demonstrate that such violence will not be tolerated.”
Langas Station Head Esther Muhoro told CPJ police were investigating the murder.
Since 1992, CPJ has documented the murder of one journalist in Kenya in relation to his work. The body of Francis Nyaruri, a reporter for the privately owned Weekly Citizen in Nyanza Province, was found in January 2009, two weeks after he went missing. The paper said Nyaruri had written stories accusing top police officers of fraud in a construction project.
RADIO JOURNALIST KILLED IN SOMALIA
In a related report from Nairobi, CPJ said on Friday, May 1, 2015 that unidentified armed men on Wednesday night shot dead the Somali journalist Daud Ali Omar at his home in Somalia, according to local journalists and news reports.
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to identify the motive in the murder and apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.
The gunmen broke into Daud’s house at around 1 a.m. in the Bardaale neighborhood in the south-central city of Baidoa while the journalist and his wife, Hawo Abdi Aden, were sleeping, news reports and local journalists said. The gunmen shot the two dead and fled the scene before the police arrived, the reports said. Daud and his wife leave behind three children, local journalists said.
“We condemn the murders of Daud Ali Omar and his wife, Hawo Abdi Aden, and call on the south-central administration of Somalia to do their utmost to investigate the terrible crime,” said CPJ East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes. “Allowing the killers to remain at large will only add to the cycle of impunity and increasing violence we are witnessing in Baidoa.”
Daud, 35, was a producer for the pro-government, privately owned station Radio Baidoa, which covered regional violence and local politics, according to local journalists. The station shared news and reporters with the state-run Radio Mogadishu, the same sources said. Daud had also worked as a news reporter Radio Baidoa. Local journalists said he produced a morning talk show called “Good Morning” a few years ago.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Local journalists and police said they suspected the militant insurgent group Al-Shabaab was responsible for the attack and cited the station’s links to the government, according to news reports.
The local Somali Independent Media Houses Association condemned the attack and called for a thorough investigation, news reports said. Police are currently investigating the crime, according to local journalists and news reports.
The murder of Daud and his wife are the latest in a string of attacks in Baidoa in recent months, according to news reports. In the last two months, at least three moderate Islamic scholars have been killed by gunmen suspected of being affiliated with Al-Shabaab, news reports said. In December, a car bomb explosion in a popular restaurant in Baidoa killed Mohamed Isaq, cameraman for the privately owned Kalsan TV station, and freelance journalist Abdulkadir Ahmed. Somalia is the deadliest country in Africa for journalists, according to CPJ research.
