Journalism is considered a very important part of society today, basically, playing a major role in oversight and realying information in real time. However, in some instances, the pursuit of news has cost a number of journalists their lives.
In February 2021, a lobby group revealed that it had documented eight cases on journalists who were killed and 88 others attacked in the line of duty between 2009 and 2020.
Article 19 programme officer in charge of media and protection Robert Wanjala revealed that of the eight murdered journalists, three were directly linked with stories they were pursuing or had already done.
The murders of these journalists have been linked to police officers and people associated with political groupings.
“We have documented 88 cases of journalists’ attacks. These are journalists who are monitored and verified. We had a number of killings in Kenya. In my record, I have eight killings of journalists but we managed to connect three of those to journalistic work,” Wanjala said.
“If you look at how these five other journalists were killed, it gives you a hint that there could be something that happened. The only challenge is that we have not been able to connect to a specific story.
“We can generally say they were suspicious killings and cannot link them to any story. We documented them as killings,” he added.
In this article, WoK profiles some of the Kenyan journalists who were killed in their lines of duty.
Samuel Nduati
Nduati was a Radio Citizen Business Editor. He was brutally killed in his home on October 27, 2000. A report by Daily Nation indicated that Ndwati shot dead.
The unknown assailants reportedly made away with money, a television set, a VCR, radio, and clothes.
Nduati who was 41 at the time, was an established business journalist which saw him work for two of the largest media groups in the country, Nation Media Group (NMG) and Royal Media Services (RMS), which owns Radio Citizen.
At the time of his brutal murder, Nduati was working on a number of articles pertaining to corruption at the Coffee Board of Kenya. Daily Nation reported that Nduati’s murder was never linked directly to his work about the coffee industry, though some of his colleagues attributed his death to his work.
Hos Maina and Anthony Macharia
Kenyan journalists Hos Maina, and Anthony Macharia were part of four scribes who were stoned to death two months before the Battle of Mogadishu according to The New York Times. The two other journalists were Don Eldon (Kenyan resident), and Hansi Krauss (German).
Early July 12, 1993, UN soldiers attacked a command post linked to the then-Somali warlord and self-declared president Mohammed Farah Aideed.
An hour after the 17-minute attack, insurgents drove to the hotel Macharia and Maina resided in and offered to show them the extent of the attack. They were escorted out of the hotel in a convoy of several cars but only one made its way back to the compound with its occupants still alive.
The New York Times reported that Maina was never seen entering the compound but Don Eldon was seen attempting to jump onto a fleeing Reuters truck. Unfortunately, he was hindered by an irate mob outside the hotel and chased into the streets, with Macharia closely behind him.
Don was found dead later that day, while the bodies of Macharia and Maina were discovered the following day. Krauss’s body was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds a day later.
Krauss’s killers demanded a ransom for his body and his camera. When his colleagues checked his camera, it emerged that he had repeatedly snapped the shutter as he died.
John Kituyi
Kituyi, an editor and publisher for Eldoret-based publisher, Mirror Weekly, was murdered at around 7.30 pm somewhere between Country Lodge Club and his Pioneer Estate home on April 30, 2015.
A report by Daily Nation indicated that Kituyi was attacked and killed by two men armed with a blunt object as he was walking home. His phone was confiscated by his murderers.
Prior to founding the Mirror Weekly, Kituyi was the Eldoret bureau chief for The Standard.
According to reports, one of Kituyi’s final articles was about Meshack Yebei, an ICC key witness who disappeared mysteriously.
Francis Nyaruri
Nyaruri’s decapitated body was discovered at the edge of Kodero Forest, on January 29, 2009, two weeks after he disappeared.
According to the Standard, the journalist’s hands were tied, his eyes plucked out and a section of his jaw disfigured. Investigations into his death, however, stalled after reports alleged that his murder may have been orchestrated by a police officer.
Prior to his death, Nyaruri was using the pseudonym, Mong’are Mokua, to publish articles on corruption within the police force in Nyamira County in the Weekly Citizen.
It was reported that prior to his death, Nyaruri had switched his attention to a construction project for police recruits which allegedly benefited senior officers.
Dennis Otieno
Otieno was reported dead on September 8, 2016. According to Citizen Digital, the photojournalist who was based in Kibomet, Trans Nzoia County was shot using an AK-47 assault rifle while in his house.
According to Otieno’s wife, one of the people behind the journalist’s murder was one of his close friends.
She stated that the armed men repeatedly demanded pictures from her husband and when he tried to defend himself, they shot him. The thugs then went also ransacked the house.
The publication further reported that what Otieno might have captured in his cameras leading to his death remains unknown.
Joseph Masha
Masha collapsed and died on September 1, 2016. The Standard journalist’s post-mortem revealed that there were no signs of toxicity in his body, therefore, his death was suspicious.
According to a report by The Standard, it was alleged that Masha was most likely poisoned during a meeting with a legislator. According to his family, the meeting was held on a Thursday, two days before his death, contradicting the MP who claimed it was on a Wednesday.
Before joining The Standard as their Kilifi correspondent, Masha worked for the Ministry of ICT in Lamu and Kilifi. The publication further reported that the journalist often went back home with a brown envelope filled with money whenever he met legislators.
