Jeff Koinange's Mounting Problems

Many Kenyans are not aware of it but CNN anchor and bureau chief in charge of Africa, Jeff Koinange has in recent weeks been going through what is perhaps the greatest crisis of his entire life.

It all started with the Nigerian crisis where the government of that volatile-by-nature African nation recently accused Koinange of paying his news sources to pose for dramatic footage. The complaints reached Atlanta, headquarters of Ted Turner's CNN International news and even involved the company's lawyers. However Jeff seems to have been given the all-clear.

But the whole saga seems to have taken a new twist after a rather bizarre incident happened in Johannesburg, South Africa, last week. Koinange had just jetted back from London, accompanied by his beautiful Arab-Kenyan wife from Mombasa, when the couple was robbed at gunpoint by a gang of at least four. They took everything, including Jeff's credit cards and American passport (surprise, surprise, Jeff Koinange is actually no longer Kenyan).

This kind of crime in the country where carjackings were invented is really nothing out of the ordinary. Incidentally what some people refer to as phone-jackings are also fairly common. This is where you are walking on the streets only to feel the muzzle of a gun poking on your side and a voice telling you to quietly surrender your mobile phone and all other valuables. Passers-by hardly sense what is going on. However in Jeff's case the timing and nature of the whole incident raises lots of eyebrows.

To start with, one or two gunmen usually accomplish this kind of nasty business. However, strangely enough, in Jeff's case there were at least four. Then there is the issue of the timing. Jeff was scheduled to fly back to Nigeria to prepare for the coverage of that country's elections. With the theft of his passport, that trip now looks highly unlikely or at least will have to be delayed for some time. Mere coincidence or is there more than meets the eye to this latest chilling development?

It is said that CNN has now put Mr and Mrs Koinange under special security arrangements, which even raises more suspicions that the armed robbery incident was no ordinary affair.

A Kenyan safari of a lifetime at a price you will not believe.