Fast forward: Solomon Muruli

Solomon Muruli, a student leader at the University of Nairobi, died mysteriously on February 23, 1997.

He was 23 and in the third year of his Bachelor of Education course.

His charred remains were found in his room at the Kikuyu campus.

It was later revealed that the fire that killed him had been caused by an explosion. 

His death sparked a series of student protests from all the Nairobi campuses for about five days, with the students blaming the police.

A few days earlier, he had told fellow students that he had received death threats.

Muruli was described by his colleagues as having strong political convictions, but that he was not a radical to deserve such a death.

ACCUSED POLICE OF KIDNAP AND TORTURE

He had accused the police of kidnapping and torturing him a year earlier, after he had led fellow students in demonstrations against police brutality and deteriorating living conditions at the university.

Muruli had talked of being abducted by policemen in November 1996 and detained for five days. 

Two universities, Nairobi and Egerton, were closed after the riots persisted and the government instituted an inquest into the death.

He had also claimed that in December the same year, he had been picked up by police in Mombasa, where he had gone as a member of the university choir to entertain President Moi, and that he had been questioned and beaten because of his involvement with the Safina Party.

In 2000, then Nairobi chief magistrate Uniter Kidullah ruled that Muruli had set himself ablaze in his room.

The ruling was condemnd by university students and opposition politicians.

The family doctor who conducted the post-mortem, Dr Sidsel Rodge, concluded that there were signs of external violence because of a huge defect in the skull.

He also concluded that the deceased was alive and breathing when the fire started, and that the death was caused by burning.

Watch out for another historical figure in next week’s Fast Forward, Monday, in DN2