Crime Editor Muiruri's Letter Protesting Incident He Claims Was Hatched To Embarrass Him At NMG

I reproduce Crime Editor Muiruri's Letter Protesting Incident He Claims Was Hatched To Embarrass Him At NMG

February 18, 2007

Mr Linus Gitahi

Group Chief Executive Officer

Nairobi Media Group

P.O Box 49010-00100

NAIROBI

Dear Sir,

RE: PROTEST LETTER

I wish to register my disgust to an incident, which happened to me at around 3pm on Friday, February 16, 2007, at Nation Centre. After I had finished clearing the previous day, I was asked by the accounts staff to collect my cheque on this Friday afternoon. I reported at the 5th floor at the agreed time and we had heartily greetings and talks with the accounts staff.

I was informed there was one signatory who was yet to append his signature and we agreed that I should wait. I then borrowed a copy of the day’s Standard newspaper from one of the staff and rested in one of the chairs.

I had not even known what the headline on the newspaper was before the deputy security manager and a watchman came running, panting and sweating profusely to where I was. After deputy security manager regained his breadth, he politely asked me why I was inside Nation Centre. The two guys looked badly shaken. I told him I had come to collect my cheque and he asked me to accompany him to his office on 4th floor. I obeyed.

On reaching his office, the deputy security manager, who was still sweating, asked me again what I was doing in Nation Centre. I explained my mission. He asked me to give him my staff ID card but I told him I would do so after I had collected my cheque. I asked him to call the cash office and find out if what I had told him was true. After the call, the deputy security manager relaxed and explained to me why he had come running and expressed deep shock and regret that he had been misled.

He told me he had been hurriedly summoned from another place back to Nation Centre and informed that I was causing trouble on the 5th floor and that there were fears that a fight had broken out in the office of the Group Human Resources Director, Mrs Helen Mbugua. I had not even gone to that side and Helen’s office was more than 100 metres from where I was being attended to by the account’s staff. But the deputy security manager was very understanding and he did not harass me at all.

Although he did not tell me who had given him the misleading report, I gathered the episode had been stage-managed by one of the managers and the intention was for me to be embarrassed by being frog-matched out of Nation Centre. Their intentions backfired since I chased away the watchman who kept standing behind me and I asked the deputy security manager to remain with me as I went to collect my cheque. I also asked him to escort me outside so that he can know I had no other mission in Nation Centre. The only sad thing was that Mr Atebe ended up not endorsing my cheque for cashing within NMG due to the security scare.

I know the bitterness in the mouths of a small clique of top managers arose when I tendered my resignation on February 2, 2007, after my reputation and integrity was unfairly questioned by none other by yourself and the Editorial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi. Subsequently, I wrote a letter to all the Editorial Staff, which I circulated in the internal email network, and copied the same to you, explaining in details the senseless campaign you and Mr Mwangi had launched against me, together with the police commissioner, Maj Gen Hussein Ali, to force me out of my job as the Crime Editor of the Nation Media Group. I also exposed the lies behind the campaign and shared with the staff some sensitive secrets they had never known. As I had expected, this put a bitter taste in your mouth and Mr Mwangi.

But I did not expect the pettiness and emptiness I saw on Friday. Am aware that some enthusiastic managers who are desperately trying to catch your eye, either to remain relevant, to avoid the axe or to wish away the sex scandals that are threatening to ruin their lives have been trying to outdo each other to please you. But I did not expect anyone to sink so low. Telling lies that I was making trouble is the height of mediocrity and absurdity.

I wish to state very clearly that I have no personal or professional dispute with Helen that I would provoke me to fight her. I have never interacted with her at all since she joined NMG. I have no issue that would make me cause trouble for any other employee of NMG or any person outside Nation Centre.

I take great exception to the primitive way some of your managers choose to conduct business. I wish they would have told me to wait for my cheque outside and I would have obeyed. Mr Gitahi, what is so special and precious with the oxygen that is within Nation Centre that anyone would imagine that anyone not working for NMG would die if they did not breathe it? Excuse me please. I have not died since I resigned three weeks ago.

I have every right to come and collect all the monies that NMG owes me. That’s not a favour and it’s not negotiable. This was a clear case of unwarranted provocation and an affront to my rights and reputation.

However, I wish to inform you that I have finished clearing from NMG and I take great exception to the whole affair that led to my resignation from this great company. Let me make it clear that I’m not seeking sympathy I return. No. Am comfortable in whatever am doing currently. Honestly, I was absolutely fed up with working for a thankless employer. I strongly believe that it’s you who require deep sympathy and prayers for being a puppet of selfish people and dancing to their whims at the expense of your loyal and hardworking staff.

As I stated in my resignation letter and the other letter I wrote and circulated to my fellow journalists on February 3, 2007, I did not regret leaving NMG. However, I took great exception to the way you handled the whole issue right from the time you reported to Nation Centre on November 1, 2006, up to the meeting in your office on February 1, 2007, which you turned into a forum to lynch me and ended up resulting in my resignation the following morning.

On the very first day you reported to Nation Centre, you called me from the blues and expressed your “total support” for me for my impressive performance. In your own words, you said you had been reading my stories for a long time and you were impressed by my writing style and boldness. You further stated that you knew reporting on security was not an easy task due to the security implications involved. Alas! I found an angel in you and I told you I felt so humbled that an outsider could come from nowhere and appreciate my work.

You landed in Nation Centre when I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life and in my journalism profession and I was contemplating to resign. I told you so during my first meeting with you in your new office. The reason I had not quit was because your predecessor, Mr Wilfred Kiboro, had offered me genuine and unwavering support.

When the NMG Board announced Mr Kiboro’s retirement, I saw a dark cloud hang over my head and I knew the sharks in NMG and in police headquarters, who had since 2005 been baying for my blood for refusing to censor or tone down the reporting of crime stories for their selfish and personal reasons, were now rejoicing and waiting in the sidelines to swallow me.

The campaign to remove me from my job was kicked off by Maj Gen Ali when he called me to his office trying to prevail upon me to stop exposing the real issues behind the scandal that had been exposed by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission on the recruitment of new police officers. I refused to bend to his wishes and continued exposing those behind the scandal and the lies that Maj Gen Ali had told Kenyans that he had interdicted 175 officers in charge of the recruitment. Not a single officer was sent home. I promptly informed Mr Mwangi about the meeting I had with Maj Gen Ali and the veiled threats he issued to me in his office for refusing to do what he wanted. I informed him verbally and followed it up with an email. Mr Mwangi was part of the campaign.

The well-calculated campaign to have me fired from NMG is well documented in a detailed report I wrote to Mr Mwangi, dated 24, 2007, in response to foul comments he had written to me, appearing to give credence to a misleading and insulting claims against me contained in a statement faxed to all media houses by Maj Gen Ali. I also sent a copy of my report to Mr Kiboro and gave you the same when I first met you in your new office two weeks after you had reported.

But in brief, Maj Gen Ali had on October 22, 2006, issued a statement in response to an exclusive article I had written in the Sunday Nation revealing that three top security chiefs had been short-listed from the post of the CID Director upon the imminent retirement of the then suspended CID chief, Mr Joseph Kamau, Using unpalatable and abusive language, Maj Gen Ali dismissed the entire story as total lies and my own imagination. He went a step further to demand that NMG management should “take the necessary steps” against me for what he termed my “ill-motivated writing.”.

When the statement landed on Mr Mwangi’s desk, he, too, wrote some fouls comments suggesting that I was manufacturing stories and that the reputation of NMG was at stake due to my journalism. He even questioned the credibility of my sources even before he had called me to give my account. It was a clear case of a seasoned editor abandoning his flock and openly siding with external forces for purely personal reasons. It’s then that I decided to write a detailed report to Mr Mwangi explaining that I stood by my story, how I sourced it and specified the number of times Maj Gen Ali had called me to his office trying to arm-twist me to censor crime stories.

But my God did not abandon me. The story that was being discredited by Maj Gen Ali and his new-found friend, Mr Mwangi, with insults and verbal diarrhea was vindicated when, two weeks later, the Head of Civil Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, announced the appointment of Mr Gatiba Karanja, as the new CID Director on November 14. When the Daily Nation splashed the story on Mr Karanja’s appointment, it took boasted on page one how its sister paper had broken the exclusive story. I was deeply overjoyed because Maj Gen Ali and Mr Mwangi’s insults had been put to shame.

I then wrote an email to Mr Mwangi telling him of my joy and my prayer that no other NMG journalist should ever be accused of manufacturing a story by their bosses before they were given a hearing. As I expected, my email did not attract a response from Mr Mwangi. But I knew he was bitter because things did not work out as he had hoped. He had hoped to use the story to discredit me but his plans were ashamed by the accuracy of my reporting and the credibility of my sources. Up to this day, I have never known why Mr Mwangi has been siding with the commissioner while he knew there was no truth in the lies that he was being fed. But now that am free of the newsroom hustles, I believe I can use my investigations skills to find out the real truth.

Every time I wrote a story Maj Gen Ali did not like or he imagined I was about to write (he must be super-human to read other people’s thoughts in advance!), he would call Mr Mwangi to lodge a complain. When I met Mr Kiboro in his office before he retired, he candidly told me, in the presence of the Group Managing Editor, Mr Joseph Odindo, that he had no time for Maj Gen Ali and that he (commissioner) gave up calling him when he ignored his tiring demands and endless complaints. But that did not deter Maj Gen Ali for he found a shoulder to lean on in Mr Mwangi.

For instance, on January 16, 2006, Mr Mwangi wrote an email to me stating and I quote: “By the way, the Police Commissioner called to ask why we appear to be targeting him. He believes we’re being used to undermine him and mentioned a story that someone is writing about his incomplete house in Karen and something about his wife, ete. Do you know anything about this?

I replied to Mr Mwangi and informed him that Maj Gen Ali had in the past called me to his office trying to manipulate and influence our coverage of crime and security stories. I told him that it was after I refused to bend to the commissioner’s whims that he started engaging in a smear campaign with a clear intention to discredit me and my stories and ruin me. I was aware about the issues Mr Mwangi was asking me but I won’t discuss them here for legal reasons and for my own personal safety. But you can refer to the report I handed to Mr Mwangi and Mr Kiboro since the issues are well explained.

After I replied to Mr Mwangi’s email and explained in details the desperate attempts by Maj Gen Ali to arm-twist me and NMG, Mr Mwangi replied thus: Thanks for this. It’s of great help and I can now see the whole picture. At some point, it might become necessary to do a thorough piece on the rivalries in the police department and how that might be impacting on service delivery. Your approach to depersonalize your stories is sound. Let’s continue dealing with issues.” I replied to him and told him that I would take up the new assignment he had tasked me to do. As you’ll find out below, that was my undoing. I was being led to a trap by Mr Mwangi the same way you, Mr Gitahi, came to NMG pretending to be an angle, only for you to display your true colours and hypocracy on the afternoon of February 1, 2007.

While other media houses shied away from exposing the truth behind the raid on Standard newspapers newsroom and the people behind it, those behind the presence of the Artur brothers in the country, sharp divisions in the Kenya Police, the boardroom rows between Maj Gen Ali and Mr Kamau, and on the other hand the rows between Maj Gen Ali and his immediate boss, Internal Security minister, Mr John Michuki, and other behind-the-scenes happenings in the force, I took up the challenge Mr Mwangi had given me and came up with exclusive stories that kept Kenyans informed on what was going on in the security agencies. This is what infuriated Maj Gen Ali to the breaking point.

The above example was not the first time Maj Gen Ali was demanding my sacking from NMG. The first time he did so was in a letter dated September 11, 2006, in a letter he addressed to Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, Mr Bernard Nderitu,

However, a copy of the September 11 letter was secretly faxed to me by a senior police officer, since I was not meant to see it. In the letter, Maj Gen Ali had taken issue with another story I had written in the Sunday Nation on how police lost good cases in court due to shoddy investigations or due to professional negligence brought about by tempering with scenes of crime. I had interviewed some of Kenya’s best experts in law and forensic science to enrich my story. Although the September 11 letter was clearly addressed to Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, it’s still mysterious how Mr Mwangi intercepted the letter while he was on leave and forwarded it Mr Odindo, with some comments on top asking him to act on it. To date, Mr Nderitu has never been formally given the letter that was clearly addressed to him. He knew there was such a letter when I made a copy from my own letter. I, too, would never have known about such a letter were it not for my good and reliable contacts within the Kenya Police. My good friend Mr Odindo was shocked that I had obtained the letter before NMG management got their copy. I explained to him that that was part of my work and that was why I was then the only Crime Editor in Kenya. He demanded that I should surrender to him the copy I had arguing the letter was not meant for me. Since I did not want to annoy my friend, I made a copy and gave him the copy he wanted. I kept mine secretly.

It’s the September 11 letter that led to the meeting I have spoken about above between Mr Kiboro, Mr Odindo and myself. Although Mr Odindo expressed disgust in the innuendos and barbaric language used by Maj Gen Ali, he frankly told me that his hands were tied and I could see the fear that was in his eyes due to Mr Mwangi’s shadow. He was of the view that NMG should ignore replying to the letter. But I stood my ground that I would do it personally if NMG management did not wish to defend one of their own against unwarranted provocation and deliberate insults.

I was being insulted and my reputation questioned by a police commissioner because I had refused to clean his mess and for serving my employer diligently and faithfully. Crime reporting is one of the riskiest jobs in any media house anywhere in the world. I took up the crime job when the killing of two robbery suspects in a day captured headlines. But revolutionalised crime reporting and set very high standards, which am so proud of.

I approached the NMG management with an idea to set up a vibrant crime desk, which they endorsed. I started from scratch and formed a Crime Section that was the envy of other media houses and it became an authority in reporting of crime and security matters in the region. Foreign journalists wanting to follow up a major security issue in Kenya turned to me and NMG and not NMG rivals. I left NMG a proud journalist for the achievements I made. The killing of two robbery suspects today doesn’t capture a headline or a page lead.

Back to the issue of our meeting with Mr Kiboro, the CEO then instructed Mr Odindo to reply to Maj Gen Ali’s letter and tell him NMG management took great exception to his wild claims and ask him to provide any evidence of my impropriety if he had any to allow them take action. Mr Odindo did not write the letter. He only did so two weeks later after I had reminded him several times and cupped it with an email dated September 28, 2006, telling him I would personally reply to Maj Gen Ali’s abusive letter if he was finding it hard to do it for fear of antagonizing his friend, Mr Mwangi.

His reply letter was surprisingly addressed to Police Spokesman, Mr Gideon Kibunjah, and not to the commissioner. And the content was meant to placate the commissioner and did not touch on the issues Mr Kibori had raised. But I personally told Mr Odindo that I understood he was in a catch 22 for he did not want to antagonize himself with Mr Mwangi. I have no problem with Mr Odindo and I’ll always regard him as a dear and genuine friend. I have a lot of respect for him. I believe he has a good heart but he attracts unpopularity in the newsroom due to his association with Mr Mwangi.

So, when you arrived at Nation Centre on November 1, 2006, and placed a call to me, I felt relieved and thought Mr Mwangi’s joy that I had been left badly exposed by Mr Kiboro’s departure was short-lived. I promptly informed Mr Odindo and Mr Nderitu of your surprise telephone call and the nice things you had told me. Today, I know you gave me false hopes as you led me to a slaughterhouse with your sly smile!

Before you were one week old in NMG, my police contacts promptly warned me that you were a leopard in a sheep’s skin cautioned me you were up to no good.

First, the police contacts informed me that you had met Maj Gen Ali, through a meeting that had been arranged by Ms Rose Kimotho, and the agenda of the meeting was that I was a thorn in the flesh for the commissioner and you were to fire me on arrival at NMG. That explains why you knew there was a Stephen Muiruri in NMG and the reason I was the first employee to receive your call and the first employee to be shown the door by you.

I gathered your meeting with the commissioner was held in October, soon after the NMG Board announced Mr Kiboro’s retirement and that you were taking over. So, it was clear in my mind even when I had met you personally that you had started transacting NMG business long you reported to NMG and the axe was going to fall on my head any time. You are a very clever guy. You started counting the chicken before they are hatched. I have since made further inquiries and found out what links the three of you; Ms Kimotho, Maj Gen Ali and yourself. But that matter is beyond this forum.

The contacts told me that the commissioner had given you a lot of dossier about me and two issues had emerged during your secret meeting:

- That I own a tours and safaris company.
- That I was among people who had allegedly bought one of the 400 vehicles that had been sold by the Kenya Police through a public auction in 2005.

I was informed these were the grounds you were to use to fire me. Since you had told me during the telephone conversation on November 1, 2006, that I was free to see you in your office if I had any issue I wanted to discuss with you, I took up the challenge and walked right to your office in the third week of you being in Nation Centre.

Although you were uneasy and shaky when I candidly asked you if it was true that you had met Maj Gen Ali before you reported to NMG and that I was the subject of the discussion, you confirmed it was true. I congratulate you for being a gentleman and honest up to that level. You further said you detested the approach by Maj Gen Ali since you had been tricked it was a lunch date. You further told me that Maj Gen Ali had quickly called you when you reported to apologise to you for tabling NMG matters in such a forum and before you had taken up the job.

I then explained most of the issues I have talked about above and how I had been under intense pressure from Maj Gen Ali to compromise my professional ethics for his own selfish gains. I told you it was his desire that we did not cover crime so that it would look like crime went drastically down during his tenure. I also informed you that I felt exposed because I strongly believed Mr Mwangi, who was then my boss, could appear to be siding with the outsiders instead of his own staff. As I told you then, I still stand by my statement that by being part of the cover up, we would be splashing our hands with the blood of innocent people who are daily being butchered by thugs. And I could not be part of the cover up.

I also gave you original documents of the vehicle that I was alleged to have bought from the police. I also gave you three different newspapers which carried the notice for the public auction. I then gave you a detailed account of the transactions, who the buyer of was and how I came into the picture. I later did a voluntary report on the vehicle issue and explained the same facts. The facts have not changed and they are also contained in the letter I circulated to my colleagues via the Editorial email when I resigned. I also copied the same letter to you.

Though the buyers name and particulars are clearly visible for the official records from the Kenya Police, the auctioneer and Kenya Revenue Authority, you, Mr Mwangi and Mr Koskei twisted facts to suit an intended agenda – to portray me as dishonest and not suitable to hold by position of Crime Editor at NMG. The auction was done in an open and transparent manner and the records clearly show who the buyer was. I brought the documents because I knew Mr Koskei was hunting in the darkness and I wanted to help him speed up the investigations he thought he was doing secretly without my knowledge. I had known long before that he was investigating me.

During our meeting, you then repeated that I had your total backing and you gave me your cellphone number and asked me to call you whenever Mr Mwangi or any other senior editor planned to kill my stories or over any other issue. I did not misuse my closeness with you even for a single second. In some of the times you bumped into me in the streets, you often asked why I had shied away from your office. I did that out of respect and since I could not take advantage of my knowing you to be frequenting your office unnecessarily.

Before you addressed a staff meeting on 3rd floor on February 1, 2007, over the anonymous letters that have been circulating on the alleged sex scandals involving senior managers, you wandered through the crowd and came to where I was seated. I had not seen you coming only that I heard your deep voice when you called my name from behind. I woke and warmly shook your hand. You said you had not seen me for a while and wondered why I had not been to your office even to say jambo. I reminded you that I had bumped into you a week ago while both of us were walking along Moi Avenue and we had a chat. However, I told you I would find time to pop into your office that afternoon.

I had an issue I first wanted to clear with you when I turned up in your office that afternoon. I wanted to clear the issue of story I had written in the Daily Nation more than a week ago on the sharp rise in extra-judicial killings, and which I had been informed by Mr Nderitu that you had taken issue with. He said he had bumped into you on the stairs while going to see Mr Mwangi over the story. Just like Maj Gen Ali, you were not taking any particular issue with the facts in the story. Everything in the story was factual and it was balanced. I even had comments from police headquarters. You were only questioning WHY I had written the story. You claimed that we were being insensitive to the police since they had been killed and you claimed we had not reported about it. You were jumping into an issue from a point of ignorance and I took time to explain to you why you were dead wrong.

I explained that we had reported incidents when police officers had been killed. And I told you we had planned to carry a special report on police officers killed in the line of duty on January 20, 2007. But the story could not see the light of the day because Mr Kibunjah told us that Maj Gen Ali had warned him not to give us the photos of the slain officers to accompany the story. I told you we only had five photos and the Managing Editor for Saturday Nation had said they would not serve the purpose he had intended. He then postponed the publication of the story.

I then told you that the story on extra-judicial killing was supposed to ran a day after we carried the story on the slain officers. It was to be published on January 21, 2007. However, that was not to be. There was a serious technical problem with the computer network that Saturday and the Sunday Nation team explained they could not access the stories which were already in the computers. I called Mr Nderitu on Sunday and he agreed to use the story the following day, January 22, 2007.

Mr Nderiru had informed me that as a result of the concerns you had expressed over the story, Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo had given him instructions that my stories should not be published until the two (Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo) cleared them. I told him that I would continue ignore their directives since they were made in the backstreets and were not communicated to me either verbally or in writing. I could not understand why such a rule had to be crafted purposely for me and not any other journalist. It was a deliberate move to frustrate me and render me unproductive so that Mr Mwangi could use the excuse to declare me redundant.

I, therefore, told you that the two had misinterpreted your comments and I humbly asked you to set the records straight I also told you that I feared for my life and that of my family if NMG managers would collude with outsiders for purely personal reasons and sacrifice the company’s reputation and independence. What couldn’t they do to somebody they thought stood between them and their personal desires and ambitions? You did not answer that question.

You then tricked me that you were going to call the two editors so that we could resolve the issue once and for all. You walked to your secretary and in under three minutes, six top managers trooped to your office and they were panting. It looked like they had been told there was an emergency. In came Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo, Mr Nderitu, the Group Security Manager, Mr Sam Koskei, Mr Dennis Aluanga (whatever his title is), and Mrs Mbugua of HR.

As soon as they sat down, I saw another Gitahi I had not known. You suddenly turned hostile and at one time, I thought your big eyes would prop out of the sockets because of the way you were staring at me, hatred and deed anger written all over your face. You then unleashed the six managers and yourself against me and you and asked me to repeat what I had told you earlier. As soon as I was through with the explanation, you brushed aside the genuine issues I had and to my surprise, you introduced the same two issues, which had cropped up during your secret meeting with Maj Gen Ali long before you set foot on NMG soil.

On my company’s issue, I admitted I owned a tours and safaris company and I explained it was not in conflict with my NMG work since I had full-time employees to run and manage it.

You asked Mr Koskei to tell the meeting what he had against me. Mr Koskei drew a long and serious face as he went into great pains to reveal the findings of his investigations on the issue of the vehicle and my tour company. One would have mistaken the seriousness that was on his face for a researcher who had discovered the Aids cure and he was making a major announcement that would shake the world. On the issue of the vehicle, he repeated the same lies that you had been fed before. And he pretended he had obtained documents from KRA at Times Towers. Aren’t those the documents I had given him and you in November? Why didn’t he table his investigation report or give me a copy?

On the issue of the company, Mr Koskei repeated what I had just told you that I owned a firm. I was amused. It had taken Mr Koskei more than three months to secretly shift through my emails for him to “discover” I owned a tour company. Oh boy! The issue of the company has never been a secret and most of my colleagues and bosses knew it. Instead of wasting company resources and time for a whole three months pretending he was carrying out investigations, he should have walked to me and I would have solved the puzzle in matters of seconds by telling him I owned a tour company.

The only serious investigation I have ever heard Mr Koskei has ever done for NMG is to shift through the emails of staff to find out what they communicate and with whom. He has been relying on me to provide him with police contacts when he is faced with a major challenge. I understand he has the background training of a prison warden! For instance, the following morning after you called me (Nov 1, 2006), Mr Koskei came to my work station and he was desperately seeking my help to link him up with the OCPD Kirinyaga over an issue involving NMG.

After I called the OCPD and he was assisted, I mentioned to him that you had called me the previous day and informed him what you had told me. He warned me that I should not take you seriously and said you looked vindictive. There was serious talk in January that Mr Koskei was on his way out. But I’m told you have given him a lifeline and increased his salary after he delivered his first sacrificial head. I’m not the first NMG staff and neither am I the last one to be hounded out of office through Mr Koskei’s lies. If you could be fed with lies by a man who has over the years masqueraded as an investigator and you believed him, it raises serious questions about your management and leadership skills. The only thing I would wish to inform you is that Mr Koskei doesn’t play my league. I would dismiss any investigations done by him with the contempt it deserves. If going through emails of staff is what he calls investigations, I pitty him and the NMG management.

All the NMG staff he spoke to when he was purporting to conduct investigations have stepped forward and told me what he asked them and his desperate and futile attempt to have them write statements incriminating me.

They further informed me that Mr Koskei was suggesting that I might have written one of the anonymous letters on the sex scandals involving top managers and which have been given wide circulation in the internet. And surprisingly, a week after I left NMG, an anonymous member of staff posted an email in the internet blog revealing that reporter Mugo Njeru was promoted to Provincial News Editor in Nyeri (Gitahi’s home district) as a reward for spying on me and feeding the bosses with lies. The same author recalled how Mr Njeru was suspended during the referendum in 2005 for allegedly attempting to extort some money from the Leader of the Official Opposition, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Political Editor, Mr Emman Omari, who had also been mentioned in the scandal, was let off the hook. However, it shocked everyone in the newsroom when Mr Njeru’s suspension was hurriedly revoked and he was paid for the days he was on suspension. Did he have vital information which he could have used to blackmail the bosses? A lot of cash from politicians flooded the newsroom during the referendum and it’s no secret to Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo and journalists. But the matter was left to die a natural death!

Mr Njeru’s promotion did not come to me as a surprise. I knew from the very first day he had held a meeting with Mr Odindo and I was aware of what the two had discussed and the subsequent talks he had with my colleagues. He like Mr Koskei can take pride in that they were rewarded for peddling lies against me. And I can only sympathise with Mr Koskei. It’s no surprise that he has survived in NMG and he earns a living from the blood of many innocent staff he played a big role to kick out.

For your own information, I did not author and neither did I any knowledge of the staff members who were writing the anonymous letters. However, I personally agree with the authors of the letters and I wish I had known who they were for I would have made variable contribution. I stand to be counted as one of the people who support their course of action. What they are revealing is only mild and I encourage them to dig below the surface. But I say kudos for their brilliance and courage. They are the true sons and daughters of NMG. I challenge any of the managers who has been accused of being involved in the sex scandals to take the earliest flight to court to clear their names if what is being written about them has no truth. Would Mr Mwangi be brave enough to take the dock? I dare him.

Friendly senior managers have confided in me that the issue of the anonymous letters might have played a major role in the turn of events during my meeting with you and the six other managers. However, I was shocked that none of you dared touch the subject and you only dwelt on the issue of the vehicle and the tour company. Now, I know that I was facing seven big cowards. If that is what was troubling your collective conscience, how comes none of you was brave enough to face me like men and table the issue during that meeting?

Even yourself, Mr Gitahi? You couldn’t have had the courage to bring up the issue even after you had summoned the six other managers to give you back up and confidence? You are indeed a bunch of six cowards. You knew the blatant lies you had been told could not hold any water and I guess that is why you developed cold feet. Surely, you can’t rely on pedestrian gossip from Maj Gen Ali and Mr Koskei to run a reputable company like NMG.

You kept asking the six managers whether any of them had any issue to ask me but none of them spoke. Only Mr Mwangi, in his characteristic arrogance, who mumbled something to do with why they wanted to be gatekeepers of my stories. You must have felt let down and disappointed when none of the managers lynched me as you had anticipated and even some of them came to my defence. All of you looked so timid with bowed heads. And it was six giants against one small time crime editor in your tension-filled office!

Sensing that you had nothing against me, you asked me to wait outside as you deliberated my fate. After a while, Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo followed Helen to her office where another round of secret talks were held. I was asked to wait outside her office. Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo slipped out of Helen’s office when I went to the gents and when I returned, Helen told me that Mr Mwangi’s secretary was looking for me on 4th floor. I met her on the stairs coming to look for me in the 5th floor and she handed me a letter signed by Mr Mwangi. But I was informed that the memo was drafted either in your office or in Helen’s office and Mr Mwangi only appended his signature.

What a coincidence? The same things that I was being accused of in the memo were the same things I had been told you had discussed with Maj Gen Ali before you reported to Nation Centre. In the memo, Mr Mwangi asked me to show cause why severe disciplinary action should not be taken against me because of the two alleged offences I was being accused of. I replied to the memo but after further discussions with friendly NMG managers, my lawyer and my confidants, I felt the only option I had was to resign the following day. I tendered my resignation letter at 8am on February 2, 2007. Due to the hostility you showed me the previous day, I felt I was badly exposed to the external enemy and your promises that I had your support were as hollow as a debe. I could no longer trust you and work with you.

The commissioner must be smiling now that his long desired wish of driving me out of NMG was accomplished by none other than the CEO of NMG. What is it that Maj Gen Ali and Mr Mwangi have against you that you decided you would better betray me rather than be blackmailed by the two? And what have you achieved by my departure?

People who know you say you are born again and a staunch Christian. And they say you have reserved a corner in your office where you kneel down every morning to offer prayers to the Almighty. If what they say about you is true, you must be very conversant with the Biblical story of how Jesus was crucified based on false witness and lies. Just like the false Pharisees, you led me to a slaughterhouse and crucified me based on information you knew was total fabrication. I think it was hypocritical of you to pretend you were offering me a shoulder to cry on, only for you to display your true colours on February 1. I wish you played safe by asking Mr Mwangi or any other manager to pull the trigger on your behalf and later you shed crocodile tears after the mission was complete as you feigned innocence. That incident wiped any slightest respect that was remaining in my heart for you.

Since it appears you were so determined to help Maj Gen Ali achieve his narrow objective, I wish to humbly ask you and Mr Mwangi to apply for the job of Police Spokesman so that you can better defend the rot in the commissioner’s backyard and the myriad of problems facing him. Maj Gen Ali has since 2005 been so determined to see me out of NMG and his desperation has reached fever pitch of late because his three-year contract is fast coming to an end on April 4. He saw me as the biggest obstacle to the renewal of his contract. I believe President Kibaki will be doing himself and this country a great disservice by renewing his contract. The spiraling crime and the sharp divisions in the force are the hallmark of his tenure.

Apart from Maj Gen Ali and his friend Mr Mwangi who seemed unhappy with my coverage of crime and exposing the crimes rocking the country, no other police officer has ever lodged any complaints against me. In fact, many of them have been calling me to commend me for my good work and that is why they trusted me with information that they could not give any other media house. Maj Gen Ali is the sixth commissioner to be in that office since I took over the crime job at NMG and none of his predecessors has ever complained about my stories or shown such open hostility. And neither have I ever been threatened in the course of my duties. I believe I would not be alive today if I was engaged in any underhand dealings.

Security chiefs who are close to me have introduced another angle to the desperation you displayed to fast-track my departure from NMG. Is it true you visited State House in January and the agenda was to help the regime win a second term? Did you discuss the security situation in the country, which is one of the campaign tools that Narc campaigned on in 2002 and now looks like a big monster that is threatening to swallow them? Do you sincerely believe that my departure from NMG will help improve the security of the country which I risked my life for the entire period I worked in NMG to improve it?

I hope NMG will not take cover now that am out and watch from the periphery as innocent Kenyans continue losing their lives due to insecurity at the expense of pleasing Maj Gen Ali. The blood of innocent Kenyans will haunt you for the rest of your lives. If it’s indeed true that you were in State House over the coming General Election, then the Opposition need to seriously worry about the impartiality of NMG’s coverage of the elections.

The commissioner is ever paranoid when the media, especially myself, reports incidents crime. He would wish we ignore everything so that his employer would think he is doing a commendable job. Is it then a wonder that he publicly denied there was a raid at the rural home of Mr Michuki when the shaken minister himself had been captured by TV cameras saying the attack was an attempt of his life?

Why was he so paranoid when I exposed the major cover up of the investigations that was done by the CID on a recruitment scandal that had been annulled following claims of corruption unearthed by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission? Your guess is as good as mine.

And the truth is already in public domain. Why was he so paranoid when I exposed the killing fields of Ongata Rongai and Ngong in 2004 and 2005? Although he called me to his office to plead with me not to expose the killings, I defied him and went ahead to publish the stories. The killings had started triggering a mass exodus of residents. Don’t Ngong and Ongata Rongai residents today enjoy peace due to my journalism?

My resignation is a major victory for Maj Gen Ali, Mr Mwangi, criminals and their beneficiaries. But it was a sad day for the journalism profession in Kenya, Kenyans who relied on NMG to expose the growing wave of crime and families who have ever lost their loved ones to criminals. The evil has for now triumphed over the good, thanks to you Mr Gitahi.

Your actions have seriously dented the reputation and independence of NMG and journalists will now be working in fear since it’s now evident that any influential outsider can now call NMG bosses and demand instant sacking of a writer purely because the journalist has done his work effectively and efficiently. Could both you and Maj Gen Ali explain to Kenyans the role Ms Rose Kimotho plays in both NMG and in the Kenya Police?

I hope you will find time from your busy schedule to respond to the weighty issues I have raised here. I would be happy if you offered any other information to disapprove the issues I have raised here. I will make this letter public as soon as I serve it to you so that Kenyans can know what goes on inside the walls of Nation Centre and in the event of any future threat to my life and my family. I also challenge you to make your response public. Let Kenyans know the truth.

I have left my destiny in the hands of God. Not to Mr Gitahi. Not to Maj Gen Ali, And not to Mr Mwangi. I believe God has good plans for me. I was lucky I had set up a tour company and I did not go out in the wilderness to float. If any of you thought I’ll be waking up every morning a desperate man, move out of my house with a stool and rotate with the sun the whole day, you are badly mistaken. As I told my NMG colleagues in the letter that I broadcast in the internal email network explaining why I resigned, I repeat it again here that there is life beyond NMG and NMG is not the beginning and end of life.

You, Mr Mwangi and the other few managers who thrive in the misery of helpless junior staff are all employees of NMG. None of you own the media house. And one day, you’ll find yourself leaving the company. Anyone of you who thought they would use me as the ventilation for their own frustrations and an excuse to run away from the sex scandals threatening to ruin your lives and their families, my humble request is; please look elsewhere. Your plans are a major flop.

I was well prepared for my departure and I have no regret I resigned. I only take issue with the manner you conduct NMG business by relying on cheap gossip and lies to make important decisions for this great company. Is NMG run from police headquarters or State House, my friend? You inherited a great and vibrant company from Mr Kiboro and if your recent management style is anything to go by, you are fast drilling a hole into the NMG boat.

Am entitled to question your motives and actions since they don’t look genuine at all. For instance, where was the wisdom to retrench 11 journalists, some of whom had not been there for three months and another had just married, and left intact the networks of corruption and sleaze in the newsroom?

Instead of acting on the grievances of the Editorial Department staff who have been demanding that you kick out senior managers implicated in sex scandals, you have chosen to bury your head in the sand hoping the hailstorm will soon be over. And to rub salt into the painful wound in the Editorial Department, you started your retrenchment programme from the department and you only kicked out the small fish whose protests you can happily ignore and find sleep. The battle has just began.

Why would you want to protect senior managers who have been implicated in serious crimes of sex scandals? Which is worst crime, Stephen Muiruri owning a tour company that is giving the Government revenue and creating employment or a manager who uses his influence to sleep around with helpless female staff? Why should Kenyans continue trusting NMG under your leadership if you would be so happy to kick out the good staff and remain with managers who stink and who have given NMG a bad reputation for years?

I was not the only NMG staff who is doing business. Mr Kiboro owned and ran a tour firm. You are an active director of Equity Bank and a dairy farmer. Why the double standard? Why was my case an exception and there was no single day I ever sneaked out of office to attend to my private business or I diverted NMG resources to my private use? So many NMG staff own companies, NGOs and other businesses and no one has ever raised a finger.

I was one of the best performing journalists and I always got a grade Two out of Six in the annual appraisals. I would like to know why you were in such a big hurry to dispose me of. I would also want to know why there is a lot of lies in NMG and who triggered a security scare on Friday by peddling lies.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Muiruri

Former Crime Editor.

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