{UAH} Standard Digital News : : Kenya@50 - Author says GSU boss Ben Gethi and other officers had accosted JM Kariuki outside a Nairobi hotel before he disappeared

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/kenyaat50/article/2000097072/top-gsu-officer-linked-to-jm-kariuki-s-killing

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Standard Digital News : : Kenya@50

By KENNETH KWAMA

The GSU commandant who is believed to have lured Josiah Mwangi Kariuki into the hands of his killers in 1975 wielded immense influence in founding President Jomo Kenyatta's government.

So powerful was the GSU boss that no major security decisions were made without his input.

When Kenyatta's guards killed some civilians who had pelted the presidential motorcade with stones in Kisumu in 1969, it is Commandant Ben Gethi and another officer who prevailed upon the founding father to hang around until things normalised.

Those present during the event were unanimous that Gethi and a Mr Njino, then head of Presidential Escort, consulted with Kenyatta before they decided he would stay put until he accomplished the mission that took him there, which was to officially open Russia Hospital.

In his book, Kenya: A History Since Independence, author Charles Hornsby linked Gethi to the murder of JM Kariuki in 1975.

The author states that on March 2, 1975, the day after a bus explosion, security officials including Gethi had publicly accosted JM Kariuki outside the Hilton Hotel before his disappearance.

"He had been followed by the police throughout the day, including European police reservist Patrick Shaw. Gethi asked Kariuki to accompany the security officials to a convoy of cars and took him to an unknown destination," states the author.

The following day, March 3, 1975, Maasai herdsmen discovered the politician's mutilated body in Ngong Hills. His fingers had been chopped off and his eyes gouged out.

"The killers had burned his face with acid to prevent identification of the body, as his fingerprints were gone. However, the acid had deterred scavengers, and his body was still identifiable. Nonetheless, police sent the corpse to the mortuary as an unknown victim."

After Kariuki's disappearance, his friends and kin frantically tried to discover his whereabouts, with rumours doing the rounds that he had been detained.

RUTHLESS UNIT

Five days later, Assistant Minister Justus ole Tipis admitted in Parliament that Kariuki was missing and appealed for anyone with information on his whereabouts to inform the police.

The GSU is generally regarded as the most ruthless wing of the police and Gethi is easily its all-time most powerful commandant.

The GSU started operating during the second half of the 1960s as a paramilitary force. Author M Tarmakin, who was one of the earliest writers to document the unit's operations, wrote that it operated as the praetorian guard of the regime in his book, The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya, published in 1978.

"The GSU is much smaller than the army (about 2,000 against about 7,500) but it is disciplined, well-equipped and highly mobile."

JM Kariuki's murder has never been conclusively resolved. Officially, the Government's position is that the case file remains open and anybody with information that can help apprehend the murderers should give it to the police.

Standard Digital News : : Kenya@50 - Author says GSU boss Ben Gethi and other officers had accosted JM Kariuki outside a Nairobi hotel before he disappeared
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/kenyaat50/article/2000097072/top-gsu-officer-linked-to-jm-kariuki-s-killing