He was one of the four members of a notorious gang who went by the underworld names of Wacucu, Wanugu and Rasta, all felled by police bullets at the height of their criminal operations.

Anthony Ngugi Kanari (Wacucu), Gerald Wambugu Munyeria (Wanugu) and Bernard Matheri (Rasta) were gunned down by police in the 1990s in Kajiado, Nyahururu and Nakuru towns.

The fourth gang member � Timothy Irungu Ndegwa � survived but was arrested, charged in court and sentenced to death in 2002.

Last week the Court of Appeal drove the last nail into his coffin when it upheld the death sentence. The convict had filed an appeal, accusing the trial judge of believing the evidence of an �accomplice� without corroboration.

The gang is believed to have presided over high profile murders and robberies in Nairobi and neighbouring towns. In one of their orgy of incidents, the gang killed three people in one night and dumped bodies by the roadside.

A woman who narrated the incident of the night of November 13, 1995, was very vivid in her story.

The murder of army officer Geoffrey Baariu Luruti had been planned a few days earlier and was well executed, according to Zipporah Wangeci, who was described by the trial judge as a star witness.

�The details of the actual killing as narrated by her are so graphic that to think that she made them up, one would have to conclude that Zipporah would qualify as a very good fiction writer,� said Judges R.S.C. Omolo, Samuel Bosire and Daniel Aganyanya.

Ndegwa was convicted in the murder of the officer on November 13, 1995. The officer, 43, was shot outside his house in Kahawa Sukari Estate.

Col Luruti had been attending a course at the Kenya Institute of Administration but opted to commute from his home everyday. According to his colleagues, he left KIA on the fateful night at around 11 p.m. He was never again to be seen alive.

His bullet-riddled body was found the following morning about three blocks away from his residence.

Ms Wangeci, who was in the company of the gang as it planned the killing, gave an account of how the officer was tracked down and killed.

According to her, she knew the gang very well and, fearing that a crime was about to be committed, reported the matter to the police but was ignored.

The woman said she first encountered the gang at Bamboo Bar in Nyamakima area in Nairobi where they bought her beer.

Ms Wangeci said she left her house in Eastleigh together with Ndegwa on the night of November 13 and took a vehicle to town.

They were dropped in the city centre where they met their three accomplices in a saloon vehicle. They left the vehicle at Akamba Bus stage.

They boarded a taxi and ordered the driver to head to Dagoretti Corner. The driver was never seen alive after the job. His body was discovered at the City Mortuary a few days later. At Dagoretti Corner, they hired another driver whose body was also found dumped at Kikuyu.

Another taxi driver was hired and ordered to drive them to Mathare North where Wambugu changed his clothes, and they proceeded towards Githurai.

At Githurai Kimbo, they noticed the officer�s vehicle, and the driver was ordered to give chase. They caught up with the officer as he turned towards his residence and was felled under a hail of bullets. His body was carried and placed a few metres from his house.

Ms Wangeci later said they drove towards town in the officer�s vehicle and left it on the Thika highway. She was given Sh800 for a taxi to town where she rented a room near Kamukunji Police Station.

The following morning she reported the matter to the station, but she was dismissed. She went to the Nairobi Provincial Police Officer who believed her story.

Three days later, Ndegwa was arrested and charged with the murder of Col Luruti. In his defence, Ndegwa denied knowledge of the other three gangsters.

His lawyer had faulted the High Court judge for not treating Ms Wangeci as an accomplice, saying her evidence had not been corroborated.

Kenya’s role on the diplomatic front this year is likely to be defined by the events of the decade gone by, the apex of our role as a major peace-maker in the region.

It will be shaped by the scars of the massive terrorist bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi that killed 257 people, the attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet at Mombasa’s Moi International airport and the bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kikambala that killed 13 people and injured 80 others.

Our eyes will remain fixed on our dalliance with Western powers which, in the last decade, led to the capture of Turkish rebel Abdullah Ocalan on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, even though it is not clear yet what role the Kenya government played in the operation, and whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved.

Commenting on why terrorism remains a major issue in Kenya, Prof Egara Kabaji, the director of Public Affairs and Communication in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says: “We are victims. We are hit not because they want to hit us, but because they want to hit Israel or the US.’’

To look into our diplomatic future, we will have to face the problems of the past decade, the final years of the Moi administration. The entry of Mwai Kibaki into State House in 2002 was flawless, the envy of the entire world, and put us up there as a beacon of hope in a hopeless continent.

Sudan was still technically at war, though a truce held as talks between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the then rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement took a long-winded path to Machakos — while Somali negotiators met in Eldoret and, later, at Mbagathi.

But, even as Kenya played a key role in appeasing its neighbours, its house was in shambles, politically speaking. The man in charge at the Foreign ministry then was the current Vice-President, Kalonzo Musyoka, who, by the time the Sudan peace deal was signed at the Nyayo National Stadium on January 9, 2005, had already been demoted to the less appealing post of Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, replaced by Chirau Ali Mwakwere.

The country, though terribly split, could take pride in having mid-wifed the Sudan peace deal and the formation of the Somali Transition Government, which later moved to Baidoa as the capital, Mogadishu, was then under the tight grip of Islamist forces. Prof Kabaji says the last 10 years have seen a sterling performance by Kenyan diplomats. “Kenya did very well in peace diplomacy. She is the guarantor of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).’’

Big market

He says Southern Sudan is a very big market for Kenya, and that we had to make sure that there was peace to open up the area to our economic engagement. Kenya has since opened a consulate in Juba that is headed by a diplomat at the level of an ambassador, Dr Joseph Kiplagat.

As we usher in 2010, the main task of our peace diplomacy is the Somali conflict. Says Prof Kabaji: “We understand very well that an unstable Somalia impacts negatively on Kenya. Piracy is a sign of the breakdown of law and order in Somalia.’’

Besides Somalia and Sudan, Kenya also played a key role in attempts to end the conflict in eastern Congo, and hosted talks that were led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. In East Africa, Kenya has been out to consolidate ties with its neighbours, as shown by the recent opening of a very modern embassy in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam.

Sore thumb

The sore thumb in Kenya’s regional ties, however, is the Migingo Island dispute with Uganda, but Prof Kabaji gives our handling of the controversy top marks: “Even here, we are scoring very well. Those who were drumming for war did not understand our strategic interests. Uganda is our leading trading partner. Much of what we produce goes to Uganda.’’

As recently as November last year, the US Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp, told reporters in Nairobi that Kabuga was hiding in Kenya, adding: “I have seen pictures of him in Kenyan neighbourhoods.’’ Internationally, the country has opened a new high Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, and has signed an agreement with Rwanda that allows citizens of both countries to take up jobs in either state without the need for work permits.

South Sudan Head of Mission to Kenya John Andruga Duku said the celebrations were symbolic and that a grand one to be attended by Heads of State and Governments was slated for January 19 in Yambio Town.

Addressing journalists in Nairobi, Mr Duku said Kenya which is the chair of Inter-Governmental Authority on Development sub-committee on Sudan to ensure the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was fully implemented to prevent a return to war.

“This (anniversary) is an important occasion. It is benchmark in implementation of the CPA as it is only a year before the end of interim period. We appeal to Igad to assume its leadership role,” Mr Duku said.

The official accused Igad of failing to hold evaluation meetings of the CPA after being vetoed by the Khartoum government, resulting to problems the process was currently facing.

Sudan is expected to hold its first democratic elections in 25 years in April to be followed by a referendum in January 2011 to decide on whether south Sudan should become an independent country.

Mr Duku said south Sudan had achieved a lot in the political, economic and cultural fields since the CPA was signed.

It now enjoys a road network linking it neighbouring countries.

Internal roads connecting its 10 states have further been opened and thus boosting trade.

“The government has further defused inter-communal conflicts by integrating armed groups into government,” Mr Duku said.

Juba, the capital of southern Sudan which used to be a dead town is now as vibrant “and if you have money you can get what you want,” he said.

Mr Duku however said governance institutions including police and judiciary need to be supported and strengthened for faster delivery of justice.
South Sudan has however been experiencing an up and down relationship with the north, raising fears of a return to war.

The Salva Kiir led government has accused President Omar Bashir’s National Congress Party of rigging the national census results and registration of voters.

The south is also unhappy with a recently passed national security law it says is aimed at cracking down on political opponents and gagging the media ahead of April polls and referendum.

“Let the people not deceive themselves, the era of unity is over. We should now be planning how the south and the north could co-exist as good neighbours” Mr Duku said.