The late Bishop Alexander Kipsang Muge, an Anglican Church of Kenya cleric, is believed to have lost his life in a tragic road accident in 1990.
However, recent information on the case years after Muge’s demise shows that the accident was a well-planned scheme by the government to eliminate him.
Bishop Muge was among those at the forefront pushing for government reforms, but key elements in government met their efforts with resistance noting that pro-reform voices were aimed at destabilizing the government.
James Lando Khwatenge, an ex-security service inspector who retired in 1992, speaking to the Nation in an interview dated 2010, reiterated that he was out to speak on the atrocities committed in the late 1990s by agents of the then Directorate of State Intelligence.
According to Khwatenge, Special Branch officers from Nairobi arrived in Eldoret with specific orders to “finish the bishop” who was becoming a thorn in the flesh for the then single-party regime.
The officers induced a scenario in which a truck was to ram into the cleric's vehicle, a situation that led Muge to swerve crashing his own vehicle.
“After Bishop Muge crashed his vehicle, the man who was in charge of the operation from Nairobi came out of their vehicle and ordered the rest to stay behind. He went straight to Muge’s damaged vehicle and only God knows what he did there,” noted Khwatenge.
“When he came back, he took a powerful communication gadget to call Nairobi and said, ‘Operation Shika Msumari successfully completed’. It meant the bishop had been pushed to his own death,” he added
The lorry driver was later charged with reckless driving. He was also charged with stealing school milk after several cartons were discovered in the lorry. He later died in prison.
The cleric died at the age of 44.
His death, though tragic, further fuelled the struggle for a multiparty rule in Kenya.
