How presidents Moi and Kibaki protected Masinde Muliro’s son

On June 17, 2006, former President Moi attended the funeral of a fugitive – Karoli Muliro – a man who had escaped justice in the US after a vehicle homicide. It was a first. Whatever message President Moi wanted to pass to the US was done without uttering a word on the issue.

The allegations were that Karoli, son of Kenyan politician Masinde Muliro, had in February 1998 hit Julie Adams, a nurses’ assistant, as she crossed the road from her workstation at Beth Israel Hospital in Suffolk County.  Police said that at the time of the accident, Muliro was intoxicated and that his alcohol level was 0.14 above the US legal limit.

After 21 months in a coma, and showing no sign of recovery, Adam’s life support machine was switched off and she died in November 1999. Muliro, then out on bail, was supposed to appear in Court to answer the upgraded charge of motor vehicle homicide but never showed up. Quietly, he returned to Kenya and settled in Sibanga Farm, Cherangany.

After six years of investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) learned that Muliro had settled in Kitale and that he occasionally travelled to Uganda.  On December 4, 2005, US Suffolk County prosecutors filed a formal application with Interpol and a copy to the US Embassy, Nairobi, requesting Muliro’s arrest and extradition.  Shortly after, and on the strength of that letter, Muliro was arrested. The US declared its victory too early.

“There is no length, no distance, to which we will not go to see justice done for Miss Adams or any other victim,” US District Attorney Daniel Conley said in a press statement. They had hoped that the Kibaki administration would help extradite Muliro – a political gamble given that the Bukusu community had stood with Kibaki’s wing of the National Rainbow Coalition, thanks to the late Kijana Wamalwa.

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It now appears that Karoli Muliro was where Kenya drew the line when it came to extradition.

On October 7, 2005, the US, in Diplomatic Note No. 1433, asked President Kibaki’s government to arrest and extradite Muliro to face prosecution in Massachusetts.  After 19 days, on October 24, 2005, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to the Commissioner of Police, instructing the Police to “kindly and urgently respond as you may wish to investigate.”

The letter reached the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), and they arrested and sought the Court’s approval of Muliro’s extradition.  Back in the US, there was joy that Adam’s killer would face justice. A month before Julie’s machine was switched off, her father, Walter Adams, had died of cancer. “When this happened to my daughter, his will to live just let go,” Julie’s mother, Dorothy Adams, told the US media outlets. “He said to me ‘please don’t give up.’”

But that hope was quickly dashed after Muliro’s case was terminated in the High Court of Kenya on December 28, 2005, at the request of the Attorney General, Amos Wako. On December 30, the US embassy sent a diplomatic note of protest. Interestingly, according to their secret cables, “the Post has engaged directly with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriakio Tobiko (sic), and held lengthy discussions with the case prosecutor, Horace Okumo (sic), concerning the US extradition request for Karoli Muliro to stand trial in Massachusetts… In addition, Post has also spoken with the magistrate who acceded to Okumo’s request to withdraw the State’s bid for extradition,” said the note prepared by William Bellamy, the US ambassador to Kenya. 

That the US would directly try to influence the case was interesting, given that the Judiciary should be independent.  Whether this case was being used to protest the US overbearing on the Kibaki administration is not clear. But in the diplomatic note, the US argues that “This case has also suffered from an inter-ministerial communication problem, as the police arrested Muliro on the basis of the Embassy’s October 7 diplomatic note without waiting for the proper legal arrest order from the Attorney General or DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions).”

Why the police acted on a US order, rather than wait for the proper procedure was baffling.

The reason given for the termination of Muliro’s extradition bid was that there was confusion between Kenyan law and US law and the types of crimes covered by the extradition treaty. The DPP argued that the crime of “vehicle homicide” does not exist in Kenyan laws.

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The Embassy explained Kenya prosecutors’ argument that while both manslaughter and homicide do exist and are extraditable, homicide while driving a motor vehicle is technically not an offence covered by Kenyan law. The Traffic Act, Kenyan officials argued, had a separate charge for manslaughter while under the influence.

Even if that was the case, the embassy felt that  Kenya had an obligation to arrest Muliro since there was already an active Interpol Red Notice for the arrest, pending extradition. Thus, the US argued that Kenya’s membership to Interpol obligated the State to extradite the fugitive. 

As the Embassy would complain later, the Diplomatic Note requesting for Muliro’s extradition was “awaiting delivery to the court” after it was delivered to the Ministry of Home Affairs, then under Moody Awori on October 7. Looking at the dates, it was politically lousy timing. Kenya was deep in the Referendum campaign for a new Constitution, and the voting was scheduled for November 21, 2005.

With all the arm-twisting and pestering, the letter never left the Ministry of Home Affairs. A month after the referendum, the Embassy sent an official request for extradition dated December 21, 2005.

It said: “The Embassy requests that the Ministry of Home Affairs expedite this request so that the United States can fulfil all the obligations set forth in our Extradition Treaty.”

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The Embassy asked that Muliro be rearrested as a flight risk. But Horace Okumu told them he needs confirmation from Massachusetts authorities that the crime alleged to have been committed matches crimes in Kenya and is covered by the extradition treaty. DPP Tobiko is said to have provided similar assurances.

While writing back home, Bellamy asked US officials to “provide Okumo (sic) informally with what he seeks before we again submit a diplomatic note.” In late January 2006, the Embassy connected Okumu with the prosecutor in Massachusetts.

The Embassy was so frustrated with the case – and Kenya’s desire to protect Karoli Muliro. In one harsh letter, it protested the way the case was dropped. “The Embassy notes with dismay that its officers were never approached for clarification on either of the conclusions said to have been the basis for the decision to not pursue extradition. 

Indeed, both American and Kenyan employees of the US Embassy had gone to the Court to attend the extradition hearing scheduled for December 28 (where such issues were to have been discussed before and decided by the judge) — only to learn then that the State had unilaterally withdrawn its case days earlier.

Given his record of having already fled the US jurisdiction (despite having posted bail and being ordered not to depart), his years as a fugitive in Kenya, his pattern of international travel to Uganda from Kenya, and the Kenyan Court’s decision to previously withhold his passport, we continue to believe Mr Muliro poses a significant flight risk. We therefore seek that Kenya authorities move with dispatch to arrest Mr. Muliro at this time.”

That never happened.  As the Embassy and the ministry argued over the extradition, Karoli Muliro died. Former President Moi attended the funeral, and other political heavyweights were in attendance.  Nothing was said about the extradition. He was buried at his Sibanga Farm, the place he had hidden. Now, it was for good.

[email protected]; @johnkamau1