Why did the late Mutula keep wild lions at his Maanzoni home? Here he is seen feeding them.
No death of a politician has caused so much shock and anxiety in Kenya since the assassination of JM Kariuki in 1975. Even the death of Vice president Kijana Wamalwa in a London hospital in 2003 did not have quiet the same impact as the sudden and very unexpected death of Makueni senator Mutula Kilonzo who went to bed and failed to wake up Saturday morning.
It also needs to be pointed out that even in life the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo was a man full of surprises.
He first came to the limelight as one of former President Moi's most trusted and accomplished lawyers and went on to build a reputation for being a very conservative and strong defender of KANU evils during the Moi era. How he re-invented himself successfully to be one of the most consistent and vocal voices for reforms and changes in Kenya is well worth studying and analyzing. And not just for PR experts and spin doctors.
In his long and distinguished career as a lawyer Mutula also built a reputation for never losing cases that he defended. There are those who will be quick to point out that he was involved in corruption and questionable deals but then the question would be if it was just a matter of paying off judges why didn't other lawyers do the same and win a reputation to rival Mutula's? The bottom line is that nobody can dispute the fact that this man was one of the sharpest legal minds ever produced on these shores.
Kenyans are a strange lot and will usually be quick to sanitize the dead so that any student of history looking to create a true picture and profile of a dead public figure will quickly learn that they all die saints in Kenya. Alas, Mutula's weaknesses are very well documented in this blog including the fact that during his entire tenure in parliament all his salary and earnings went straight to the Kenya Revenue Authority to settle a colossal long standing tax bill he had with the taxman. In addition to that his fondness for pretty female ankles was legendary.
Still the odd thing here is that I find it difficult to dwell on his weaknesses and misdeeds and most who write about Mutula will find themselves in exactly the same position. I have asked myself why, even as I struggled to write this piece. Twice I read it through and failed to recognize the usually tough and very critical Kumekucha who always ignores the pact the Kenyan public have made with their dead public figures to speak no evil. At the end of my revisions I was unable to add the kind of venom that helps bring out the truth about a person.
I suspect the reason is that Mutula was too rare a breed in Kenyan politics. He always spoke his mind without fear of raffling feathers and he always stuck to his position on matters no matter what kind of pressure he came under. That just doesn't happen in Kenyan politics and no other politician has taken that path.
In my raw notes I currently have a series on Mutula running from an in depth investigation into what may have caused his death and his possible enemies to little known facts (including the very sensitive case involving President Moi and a scandal where he managed to "kill" a planned international expose using his legal and negotiation skills). They make extremely fascinating reading and will greatly help anybody to understand what has just happened and possible reasons as to why it may have happened.
Indeed many will find good reason to analyze the life of senator Mutula Kilonzo in the next few weeks and months and even in many years and decades to come.
Hardly surprising because when all is said and done this man was different and that is why too many Kenyans across the political divide are anxiously awaiting official word as to his cause of death and will be appalled if it is indeed true that somebody somewhere cut short the senator's life.
Fare thee well Mutula, great son of Kenya.
Fare thee well Sen Mutula. You may be gone but you left a solid legacy at the Ministries of Justice and Education. Your death is like a library burnt down. Till we meet again, AMEN.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteImmediately after the IEBC Chairman announced the winner of the just concluded general elections, rumours were rife that Mama Ida Odinga had barred Mutula Kilonzo from entering her compound,the question is why? what transpired there?
He died in the SLEEP! Failed to wake-up!
ReplyDeleteHow is that being killed? STOP these rumourmongering! He died in the sleep! PERIOD!
Let the guy now rest in peace.
Mutual was done by ICC politics.
ReplyDeleteCould mutula start impeachment of suspects as he had vowed?
ReplyDeleteReading standard today, mutula went with a huge secret.
ReplyDeleteLikely to do with UK/Giddy bromance?
WSR lacks the pedigree and he should really worry about the date in May that is likely to undo the current bromance in the house on the hill. Does this explain his now countrywide visits?
If there is one thing we can be certain of in life, it's that eventually we will - all - die, some of us sooner, while others later.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are those of us who don't have the slightest desire to be there when death comes knocking at the unexpected moments of our lives.
That is why as sad as Senator Mutula Kilonzo's last moments on earth may have occurred sooner than expected, there are some of us who will always envy him for the manner in which he lived his life and later exited the world - as we know it - in the silence of his usual nightly sleep, in his own bed and at his favourite ranch.
Although none of us know the exact hour or day of our expiration date of our earth life, there is one gentleman in the person of Mwalimu Saburi who never failed to remind students during the last school assembly before the start of the end year four weeks holiday season about some of the safety measures to be pursued while they away from school.
One of them was, situational awareness should be your number one priority.
Stay safe at all times and in all places during the holidays, and beware of the causes of permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism, which are triggered by a phenomenon that is commonly known as death.
Therefore, never provoke death in any way, shape or form before your time is due. Hope to see all of you back here at school after the holidays are over. Dismissed. Get out of here. Kwendeni.
Anyway, seems as though Senator Mutula Kilonzo's expiration date was due at an opportune time, on his own terms and at the right place while his was deep asleep.
And for that, including many of his other goods, one of Kenya's great statesmen and favourite son will be greatly missed by many, friends and foes - if any - alike.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the real problem with some of us when it comes to death and dying among our people?
Why are we already looking into the prospects that there may have been foul play involved in the death of late Senator Mutula Kilonzo?
Ati, someone or people may have sneaked small quantities of sap from very potent root that is extracted from the rare yellow rosewoods of Kitui or Kibwezi?
Why don't we ever explore other causes of death that occur while people are sleep, such as strokes, blood clot, heart attack or SCDDS (Sudden Cardiac Death During Sleep), SADS, SUNDS, etc.
Must every person's death be as a result of being given an ancient kamuti (spl) of the deadly kind sold by the well known medicine people in the land?
Unfortunately, our so-called pathologist or government fulani wa fulani, will end up releasing some very vague pathological findings that always point into the direction of "yes" or "maybe", hence leaving it for open interpretation by those concerned.
Viagara, poison, ICC, heart attack...Please Kenyans stop these very insane rumors and lets wait for the official reports after postmortem.
ReplyDeleteHe was killed by man,God or Devil. PERIOD!
ReplyDeleteOld men with heart problems and viagra do not go well. Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteWas Mutula Murdered?
ReplyDeleteWho killed the late Mutula Kilonzo? Who would have wanted Mutula Kilonzo eliminated or murdered? Why? And why now?
There are so many ways in which the life of a politician like Sen. Mutula Kilonzo can be brought to an abrupt demise in mysterious ways, but the manner in which he was found dead in his own familiar surroundings is the least likely.
Why would anyone take the risk of spiking Mutula Kilonzo's drink, soup or food with a deadly sedative or poisonous potion obtained from one of the traditional medicine people such as Kalembwana in Usambara Mountains, Isangoma in Kwazulu-Natal, Inyanga in Bulawayo, Walubengo in Mt. Elgon, Rumbobora in Kabale, etc.
So far, there is no any indication that someone or group of individuals were out to get him or end his life due to one reason or the other.
As matter of fact, man like Mutula Kilonzo was never known to be in the habit of joking or issuing false alarms about a string of shadowy figures trailing him with the intentions of trying to eliminate him, or putting his life in mortal danger, given his high profile political lifestyle.
By the way, who is it or who are the people who stand to gain the most from Mutula Kilonzo's death as well as his permanent absence from the world of politics in Ukambani, within the Wiper Party, the Senate, and at the national level?
And were there any known or sworn enemies of the late senator?
Surely, someone or people close to the late senator must have had some sort of knowledge about the existence of such malicious characters if there were any out there.
Who took the life of Mutula kilonzo?
The evidence points to only one well known individual, namely, the envious last born sibling of Mother Nature, better known as Sister Death.
She has been known to bask in pleasurable moments every time she takes a life that had been brought into being by her elder sister, Mother Nature, after she found out that she had been afflicted with nihilistic delusions from the beginning of time.
Some of us may never know how or why they life of the late Sen. Mutula Kilonzo came to end, however, all we can do at the moment is offer condolences to his immediate family and close friends, while at the same time request his soul to finds ways through which it can rest in enternal peace.
+RIP.
Rule out any night intruders, uninvited guest or guests from your list of the usual suspects.
ReplyDeleteThe man, Mutula Kilonzo, did not own mbwa kali the deadly killer dogs known as Boerboel ('haburbul') or Hannibal Barca's combat dogs, the original real dogs of war.
He rather opted for the genuine article in form of the king of the jungle, simba marara, which are a real deterrence to any who would be night intruders bent on harming him or destroying his property.
The Abacha theory that is being floated around does not hold water at all, because one of his worker let him in onto the property, then closed the gate and was handed the keys to the vehicle with a request to get it cleaned inside out, the first thing the next morning.
The worker never saw his employer in the company of any guest, guests or known friends who may have wanted to rest for the night at the senator's guest wing as was the usual case in the past.
Anyway, let us wait and find out what really happened to him.
@11:21 PM
ReplyDeleteThe roots of the Rosewood tree and the African Blackwood (Mpingo) do not have an acute toxicity that is know of.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteMutula Kilonzo (RIP) may have been known for never having lost case he defended, but as it turns out, he lost his last and most important case presented before the country's Supreme Court.
A case whose outcome may have had some sort of historical significance had the Supreme Court's ruling been in favour of his client at the time.
So does he now qualify for the following epitaph - 'A very diligent lawyer who never lost his cases except his last landmark case'?
Did an old political nemesis with a deep seated grudge eliminate Mutula Kilonzo in the same way Kitili Maluki Mwendwa's life was cut short three-and-half decades ago?
ReplyDeleteVery few people beyond the greater region of Ukambani may recall who Kitili Maluki Mwendwa was but it does not hurt trying to figure out what really became of the bungled inquest into the death of Kenya's first chief justice?
There has never been an official word as to the real cause of death involving the late Kitili Maluki Mwendwa, a former chief justice, politician, and MP for Kitui West.
A man who was also known to have been a bossom buddy of Apolo Milton Obote, the former statesman, prime minister, president, founder of Uganda People's Party and "a notbale son" who rose from humble beginnings in the Akoroko village of north-central Uganda.
Rumour still has it that he was eliminated because it was feared by some powerful individuals within the inner circles of power at the time, that Apolo Milton Obote was having undue influence on Kitili Maluki Mwendwa's political aspirations that were not in the country's best interests.
Kitili Mwendwa's frequent trips to neigbouring Tanzania and contacts with Milton Obote did not help much when deep suspicions arose that the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who was also a very close friend and a long term political ally of Milton Obote, may been using the rare opportunity to school and groom Kitili Mwendwa for his own greater political interests in the East African region.
The wreckage of Kitili Mwendwa's vihicle and mangled remains reeked of foul play and involvement of a treacherous hand, and the activities of powerful dark forces.
Time will tell whether the pathological findings of Sen. Mutula Kilonzo's sudden death will establish the cause of his death as having resulted from natural causes, or some other kind of sinister measures as being resposinble for his induced demise?
How can one justify a system where MPs earn about Sh500,000 a month while unemployment and poverty are at a peak? - Mutula Kilonzo, July, 2005.
ReplyDeleteRIP.
Mutula was murdered!!!!! Just like Mboya, Ouko, Mbai, Pinto, JM.... The list is long. They will never find the murderer. His death is linked to his loose but intelligent mouth. A criminal should not lead Kenya. That was his belief which led to his dismisal from justice ministry.We suspect many more will be mysteriously go like him. Wait and see.
ReplyDeleteThey are so Slippery
ReplyDeleteWhen they eat, they eat alone, when they vote they vote only for their own, when others reject them, they claim to be Kenyans. Kitendawili who are they
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Traders-claim-gangs-seeking-to-drive-them-out-of-business/-/1056/1761070/-/p43o74z/-/index.html
Nikweli, 'Kifo Hakina Huruma.' - Dkt Remmey Ongala.
ReplyDeleteSen. Mutula Kilonzo, RIP.
The news about Mutula Kilonzo's death continues to incite a flurry of mournful tweets, posts on fAcebOok and various blogs.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter fo fact, the late senator has already gone to be with the Great Majority, the ancestors - the Ancient Ones - who went before him, and he will definitely be warmly welcomed and granted a comfortable resting place as a junior member or recent arrival in their eternal midst.
In the meantime, although it has been reported that he died in mysterious circumstances, what seems to be oblivious to some segments of our population is the fact that hundreds of people die in their sleep every year from choking on their own vomit.
For instance, according to the JoM, around 750,000 people actually do die in the United States of America every year after having choked on their vomit.
On the other hand, circumstances surrounding the untimely death of Mutula Kilonzo will remain surrounded with inconsistances, shrouded with mysteries and a variety of conspiracy theories for a long time to come.
However, with all due in his memory, to his family, firends and supporters of the late senator, I hate to jump the gun - before the toxicology results are out - and allude to the effect that, he (may have) died from asphyxiation due to vomiting while unconscious or asleep.
If it is true as reported earlier on by first responders and eyewitnesses, that signs of vomit were evident around his mouth and on his pillow, then it would be fair to state that like many other people who died in similar circumstances, his death was a result of choking on his vomit while asleep.
Let us hope that his death will not be over politicized in one way or another, other than his former colleagues will accord him the full honours and allow him to be granted a dignified final farewell befitting the kind of man that he was as one of the top lawyers, courageous politician and the first Senator of Makueni County.
RIP.