Stephen Muiruri Arrest: No Word Yet As Incident Receives Media Black Out

The arrest of one Stephen Muiruri has sent shock waves right across the Kenyan media fraternity, including bloggers who have been pushing the limits of press freedom in Kenya for months now. All are waiting with baited breath to see what charges will be slapped on Muiruri, that is if he gets charged at all.

Actually the arrest of Muiruri, the immediate former Nation newspapers crime editor could not have happened at a worst time. Through blogs many Kenyans who have been in the dark are just beginning to find out startling facts that have a major impact on our lives but have hardly ever been covered by the media. High on the list is the Nation sex-for-promotions scandal that seems to be opening a can of worms with many other Kenyans coming forward and pointing out specific sexual misbehavior in corporate Kenya. Then there is the huge effort by police to tone down and even stop major crime reports appearing in the media. Interestingly this is precisely what put Muiruri on a collision course with police commissioner Ali as the crime editor insisted on reporting in detail on crimes and succeeded in unearthing several incidences of attempted cover up by the police. The most memorable was in 2005 during the November referendum on a new constitution where a child was killed in Kisumu during riots but police covered up and wanted Kenyans to believe that nothing of the sort had happened. Muiruri brought that story to Kenyans and finally the police were forced to admit the truth. There are many other instances.

To get an idea of just how effective the police instigated media blackout on crime has been, this blogger cited an incident at the Mashada site where somebody reposted a Kumekucha article that highlighted the frequent hijackings of matatus in Nairobi which usually ended up with the rape of the women passengers. These hijackings are hardly ever covered in the media and a Kenyan left a very abusive comment at the site calling this writer a liar and insisting that I must have made up the whole story.

Nasty memories of what has been done by authorities against bloggers in countries like Egypt have come to the fore and analysts are wondering whether Kenya will go in the same direction. In Egypt bloggers have been routinely arrested and jailed for what they have written online.

The ultra sensitive government in that country has simply traced the IP addresses of where the "offensive" posts were being made from and in one instance a group of bloggers were leaving an Internet Cyber Café when a police vehicle pulled up and the police had their "culprits" after some brief consultations. Are we headed in the same direction in Kenya?

One thing is for sure, the ruling class in Kenya made up of people who have mostly made their money from corruption have been very nervous about the developments that have been going on in recent times on the web and especially amongst the Kenyan political blogging community.

Was it a mere coincidence that the only media outlet that reported the former Nation crime editors' arrest was Capital FM? Capital FM is owned by a man called Chris Kirubi who like most wealthy people in Kenya mysterious-don't-ask-any-questions past. The man was a transport manager at the government-owned Kenatco in the 70s when the illegal coffee boom was happening. He was a poor ordinary Kenyan then but emerged from the illegal coffee boom an extremely wealthy man. Rumours abound as to how exactly he achieved this Houdini feat. The most persistent says that he used Kenatco trucks to transport the coffee for smugglers to Mombasa for hefty fees that never reached the coffers of the parastatal. Later Mr Kirubi cleaned up his image and was greatly helped by appointments to boards of large multinational companies who wanted to make use of his powerful contacts within the Kenyatta government.

Mr Kirubi's clean image, especially with would-be international business partners surfing the net and Googling an individual (the practice of typing in a person's name at the Google search engine to see what has been written about them) before cutting a deal has been badly damaged by the Kenyan blogging community and chances are that the man would aid with any clamp down in that direction. As far as this blogger knows, no other media outlet has reported the Muiruri arrest. Is this telling us something?


Many people don't know it, but there are plenty of genuine jobs and business opportunities available online. Get details on how you too can make money on the Internet or even earn a living. It does not matter whether you live in the remotest village in Kenya or anywhere else, all you need is a computer connected to the Internet. Read Kumekucha's fascinating report; Ways To Make Money Online

Real Gikuyu man answers lonely frustrated beauty who complained to Kumekucha about her lovers of the past.

Stephen Muiruri: What Dark Secrets Of The Police Commissioner Does He Know?

Those who have an inkling on the kind of information that Stephen Muiruri has on the high and mighty may have been secretly happy at his arrest not because they dislike him, but because he could be much safer in police cells than in the streets.

It is said that Muiruri himself usually carried a gun for his own protection and sources within Nation house insist that he was armed on the day that he went to surrender his resignation letter.

In the lengthy resignation letter he circulated via email to his colleagues at the media house, which later leaked and has been widely posted in various Kenyan blogs, it was obvious that he blamed police commissioner Ali for his woes. Hardly surprising because Muiruri is known to be a close friend of former CID director Joseph Kamau who left the police force in a huff after clashing on several occasions with police commissioner Ali.

This writer has never met Muiruri in person but during an email interview with the former Nation crime editor, it became clear that there was some certain highly sensitive information that he had on Police commissioner Ali which he was not prepared to discuss online. He instead suggested a personal meeting to divulge the information. This blogger was still in the process of organizing to travel to Nairobi to meet Muiruri, while accomplishing other urgent chores, when news of his arrest came through. So what exactly does Muiruri have on the most powerful police commissioner in the history of independent Kenya? Could this be the source of his woes.

Read the Muiruri’s letter where he says he fears for his life.


Many people don't know it, but there are plenty of genuine jobs and business opportunities available online. Get details on how you too can make money on the Internet or even earn a living. It does not matter whether you live in the remotest village in Kenya or anywhere else, all you need is a computer connected to the Internet. Read Kumekucha's fascinating report; Ways To Make Money Online

Real Gikuyu man answers lonely frustrated beauty who complained to Kumekucha about her lovers of the past.