A Kenyan gun expert who testified in the assassination of the late Rwanda Minister for Interior Seth Sendashonga has died.
The family of Benson Gichuki Nduguga announced that the firearm examiner breathed his last on October 29, 2020, at the age of 72.
By the time of his death, Benson had been awarded 2 presidential honours; Head of State Commendation and Order of the Golden Warrior.
Nduguga was at the centre of the murder case that threatened the diplomatic relations between Kenya and Rwanda.
The former Rwanda Interior Minister was killed at the junction of Limuru/Forest Road in Parklands Nairobi in 1998, alongside his driver.
Sendashonga, a critic of the current President Paul Kagame, had fallen out with the Rwandan government for demanding punishment for rogue soldiers who carried out revenge attacks against suspects in the 1994 genocide.
His assassination came just a few years after he was slightly wounded during a previous attempt in Nairobi West area.
The suspect in the attempt was said to be an attaché in the Rwandese Embassy in Nairobi and was arrested.
Kenya asked Rwanda to lift diplomatic immunity to try the foreign suspect but Rwanda refused - causing a diplomatic feud that led to the closure of the Rwandese embassy in Nairobi.
In 2019, Kagame blamed the deceased for his own death, saying he had crossed the line.
"Seth Sendashonga died because he had crossed the line. I have very little to say about that, but I am also not apologetic about it," the Rwandese strongman said.
A few months before his murder, strange people had started following the deceased. At one point some people went to his residence posing as police officers but when asked to identify themselves they left.
On May 13, 1998, a taxi driver, who later became a witness in the case, was approached by a man who wanted to hire killers to eliminate a man who had allegedly swindled his father of some money.
The driver, whom the hirers did not know was a police informant, was supposed to be shown the victim to who had a target on his head.
The taxi driver informed Chief Inspector Daniel Songol Seroney who instructed two police officers to pose as killers ready to take up the assignment.
The two undercover officers in the company of the informant met the man who wanted to hire the killers.
They accepted the assignment but the hirer informed them that he was expecting some guns from Uganda and a meeting was arranged for the next day.
The hirer seemingly got wind of the undercover operation and fled. However, on the day the late Minister was shot, the police already hand insights on who was involved.
The driver took security officials to the home of the hirer where they arrested and detained him.
On his arrest and subsequent interrogation, he confessed to Chief inspector Seroney that he had now accomplished his mission and was ready to die.
