Kenyans are quite familiar with tales of harassment, particularly directed towards journalists, especially when covering issues that may ruffle feathers in a few quarters.
One of the lowest moments in the practice of journalism in Kenya was when veteran journalist John Kituyi, a former Standard newspaper correspondent and founder of Eldoret-based The Weekly Mirror was bludgeoned to death in the streets of the town he operated from.
The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported in May 2015 that Kituyi was battered to death by a gang riding on a bodabodas at about 8 p.m. on April 30, 2015, after he left a bar while on his way to his Pioneer Estate home.
What baffled many was that after his death, the assailants took away his phone and office keys but left his wallet and his watch untouched.
Before his brutal death, Kituyi was reported to have been working on a story concerning the disappearance of Meshack Yebei, a man wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged witness interference in the 2007 post-election chaos case.
The story was reported to have attracted unwanted attention, with threats being directed in Kituyi's direction after he declined to drop the investigations concerning it as directed.
The statements by The Guardian were echoed by Qatar-based media powerhouse Aljazeera, who reported that weeks before his death, Kituyi and other Eldoret-based journalists had received a barrage of threats related to their coverage of the International Criminal Court’s case.
The publication further alleged that the threats, which abated over time, resumed two months later after a badly mutilated body, suspected to be Yebei's, was discovered more than 400 miles away in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park.
Kituyi was reported to have encountered new details on the case and was set to share them with the world, but he never got a chance to.
According to the Daily Nation, the first person to receive the news of his death was Sarah Kituyi, his daughter, who was also based in Eldoret.
“I was alone in the house preparing dinner when I heard a bang at the gate. Upon checking, I found a bodaboda friend of his who said they had found my father seriously injured. He added that they had rushed him to hospital," the publication reported on Friday, May 1, 2015.
Kituyi was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
