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Police arrest suspect over Mt Elgon clashes
KENYA TIMES
By RUTH WAKAPE & ABRAHAM MALAKWEN
14.April 2007
A man has been arrested in Bungoma town on suspicion of fuelling the Mt Elgon killings.
Fred Kapondi was arrested yesterday by police detectives in Bungoma town at about 6 pm and placed in custody under tight security.
A friend of his said Kapondi was on his way to Kakamega town from Nairobi on the request of Western Provincial Commissioner Mr Abdul Mwasera to attend a peace meeting scheduled for today in Mt Elgon.
Saboti parliamentary aspirant Mr Lawrence Cheshari Mokusu who was with the suspect said Kapondi had informed him of the call from the PC on Wednesday to attend the peace meeting which Internal Security minister, John Michuki, was expected to attend.
Cheshari said the two were summoned by Criminal Investigation officers in Nairobi and offered to provide them with transport to Kakamega on grounds that they headed the same destination.
On reaching Webuye, the two detectives informed them that the Provincial Security team was in Bungoma and they were expected to meet it before they could proceed.
On arrival in Bungoma at around 6pm, the officers drove the vehicle to Bungoma Police Station where they dropped him and left him in the hands of other security personnel.
Present at that time was the Bungoma chief detective Seif Mbaruk, his Mt Elgon counterpart Mr Kimilu, Provincial Criminal Investigation Officer Mr.Patrick Mugo and Bungoma police chief Thomas Matano.
Mokosu said the officers had assured them that Kapondi will be released after official communications from the Provincial Commissioner.
But by this morning, the suspect’s whereabouts were unknown as he was said to have been transferred to another station within Bungoma. Mokosu said Mr Mwasera held a closed-door meeting with Kapondi last week at the provincial headquarters in the presence of the provincial security team and later told to go home.
But Kapondi declined, saying he would not go home until his name has been cleared of any suspicion of involvement in the Mt Elgon clashes, adding that his name had been dragged into the mayhem through political malice on the instigation of Mt Elgon MP John Serut. Meanwhile the Law Society of Kenya, North Rift branch chairperson Simon Lilan, reckoned that the endless mayhem in Mt Elgon is suspect because it only erupts during the electioneering period. He called for thorough investigations to unravel the coincidence, claiming that some politicians could be out to offer human sacrifices so as to win elections.
The LSK branch boss said such clashes lead to unnecessary deaths and expressed concern over the fate of children whose families have been
displaced.
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