(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 15 February 1999, a gang of twelve unidentified men abducted the editor of a Nairobi media professional journal and director of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Media Institute, and beat and tortured him before abandoning him in Karura Forest on the outskirts of Nairobi. David Makali, editor of “Expression Today”, a monthly newspaper […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 15 February 1999, a gang of twelve unidentified men
abducted the editor of a Nairobi media professional journal and director
of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Media Institute, and beat and
tortured him before abandoning him in Karura Forest on the outskirts of
Nairobi.
David Makali, editor of “Expression Today”, a monthly newspaper
published by the Media Institute, was seized outside a hotel in the city
centre.
Makali said that two men had visited him earlier in the morning at his
Cargen house office in Nairobi, told him that they were members of the
Luyha People’s Forum and that they wanted to have a chat with him at the
hotel. Makali said that they wanted him to attend the meeting and write
about the mismanagement of the country’s economy. They had insisted that
he go with them to the hotel, but he asked to be given time to organise
a number of things in his office. Afterwards, he walked to the hotel to
meet his “guests.” Makali further stated: “As I was entering the hotel,
somebody grabbed me by my neck from behind and another one by the waist,
lifting me by my trousers. They started beating me and shoving me into a
waiting Toyota van. At first I thought they were police officers, and
even passers-by-thought the same, given the way I was being handled.”
Makali recounted that the men drove over to Nation Centre and briefly
stopped there to pick up more of their confederates before driving on
towards the Karura forest.
The journalist, who said he now feared for his life, added that the men
first drove into a section of the forest along Kiambu road, where they
cursed at him and beat him up. They drove back on the main road and then
entered another section of the forest, where he was beaten up again with
kicks and blows before being abandoned. When they left him, Makali said,
the gangsters warned that the next time he would not live to tell the
story.
Addressing a press conference held shortly after his ordeal, Makali said
the men whom he described as “Luyhas”, were particularly incensed by a
report on drug trafficking in Kenya in the current issue of his journal.
They wished to know the writer and the sources of the story. Headlined
“Kenya turned into haven for drug barons”, the article details what it
calls the involvement of several prominent politicians and businessmen
in a major drug ring that threatens to turn the country into a new
drug-trafficking world centre.
Makali however vowed to continue with his work of serving society,
saying he could not be cowed by thugs. He said that the incident had
been reported to the Nairobi Central Police Division, and they are
carrying out an investigation. He also urged fellow journalists to be
more vigilant in their work, while at the same time being more cautious
about their own security.
