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August 14, 1990.Where were You on that Date?
About three days before the Bishop’s death, Kenya’s then Labour Minister Peter Habenga Okondo told Muge that he would not return home alive if he dared visit Western Kenya.
The Daredevil Bishop took on the challenge, but true to Okondo’s threat, he did not return home alive. As fate would have it, Bishop Muge was killed when on his way back. A milk truck crashed into his car along the Webuye-Eldoret road on his way back after a triumphant entry into Busia in total defiance of Okondo’s threats.
Muge’s death was a major setback to the pro-democracy activists then.He died in mysterious circumstances after he defied an order from a Kanu stalwart not to visit Busia town. It was the mark of Muge’s enduring courage and fearlessness that he made the journey in the first place because three days before his death, Peter Okondo, then Labour minister, had warned the Bishop that he would ”see fire and might not leave alive” if he visited Busia town.
There has been speculation that Okondo did not mean it when he issued the death threat to Muge who perished in a road accident along the Eldoret-Turbo road after a visit to Busia.
A Former Intelligence Officer, James Lando Khwatenge, who worked with the Special Branch in Eldoret at the time, reportedly told the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) that the Clergyman was killed by police officers who were sent directly from Nairobi to “finish” the outspoken bishop and use the accident to cover up.
Khwatenge was widely quoted in the media saying the bishop’s death on August 14, 1990, was the final job on what police called Operation Shika Msumari.
He said KANU loyalists who wanted to assassinate Muge merely seized threats issued by the former Labour minister against the bishop and used him as a scapegoat.
TJRC listened to the former intelligence officer while conducting hearings on unresolved political murders since independence. No evidence was, however, presented to show that his death was anything but an accident.
The driver of the truck was charged with causing his death through reckless driving and sentenced to seven years in prison, but he died after serving only five years.
The Attorney General ordered an inquest in response to the public outcry over his death and widespread suggestions of foul play, but nothing came out of the inquiry.
The clergyman was famous for fighting corruption, land grabbing, political assassinations, bureaucracy and other social ills and did not confine the fight for what he believed in Kenya’s borders.
Bishop Muge is also remembered over his open stand against Homosexuality made on May 17, 1990 during a visit to the USA. He based his condemnation on classical understanding of the scriptures.
Source : North Rift
News.com
