Kenya Stockholm Blog

Unanswered Questions On The Late Kashito’s Case

Hardly a day passes before you hear something like “Wakenya in Stockholm ni wabaya sana”. There are Kenyans here who believe that someone is always trying to destroy them and any failure has to be blamed on another Kenyan. There is one who lost his driving license after the Swedish police caught him driving while zonked.

When he emerged from the shock, he began to blame a friend he had been drinking with claiming that the

friend encouraged him to drink although this crooked friend knew that he was driving. The only reason why the friend did this, he reasoned, was because the ka friend wanted him to lose his laiso.

And then, there is the breed of Kenyans always blaming their countrymen for spreading rumors as if rumor mongering was invented by Kenyans in Stockholm and as if this art is exclusively practiced by Kenyans (Kibaki would say “kwendeni huko”).

Rumor is part and parcel of every society (including the Swedish society) and to suggest that Kenyans in Stockholm are evil because they like spreading rumors is to say that other communities do not practice rumor mongering, a conclusion that, according to sociological research findings, is not correct.

Kenyans in Stockholm are very hard working people and if they spread rumors, they are just acting normally. Of cause! The rumor can be hot or cold depending on what has happened and rumors are mainly fuelled by lack of information or contradictory situations which do not make sense but which are being pushed as pure logic. Take the latest rumor for instance.

After Kashito passed away in his sleep, all sorts of rumors have filled the air. A harambee that was supposed to be held on Friday November 28th was cancelled without explanations and if rumor was flowing water, what happened later in the Kashito case has fuelled the kind of rumors that could fill the biggest water tank available in Stockholm.

At first, Bryan Njoroge aka Njoro, a Kenyan who was deeply involved in the planned Kashito harambee and who has been circulating briefs about Kashito, told Kenyans that at least 60,000 kr was needed to settle Kashito’s hospital bills. He wrote:

“It is understood that there is no financial pressure at the moment while investigations to determine the cause of death are still underway but when these are over, in about three weeks time, then the bills will start coming in. It is then that the body will be released for burial. At the discussion-open house, a rough bill estimation was made of about sixty thousand Swedish crowns as expected to come up”.

DID KASHITO HAVE MEDICAL BILLS TO BE SORTED OUT BY KENYANS?
Here we go. There was “no financial pressure” yet every Kenyan who understood the circumstances knew that Kashito’s body had to be transported to Kenya thereby creating one of the biggest financial pressures known among Kenyans in Stockholm under the circumstances.

According to Njoro, 60,000 kr would be needed when the bills “start coming in”, a statement which suggested that medical bills had accrued and that Kenyans needed to get ready to sort this bill out.

Earlier, Kenyans had been told that Kashito was a student here meaning that he had the right to medical care as long as he held a valid student’s visa which comes with medical insurance so even if he had been ailing, why should Kenyans in Stockholm foot his medical bills? Kenyan rumor mongers began to smell a rat but they still kept quiet, save for whispers here and there.

The suggestion that Kashito may have been sick and that his medical bills needed to be sorted out came after the Kenyan community had been told that Kashito was a healthy and youthful Kenyan who passed away in his sleep in the wee hours of the morning. Some multiplications and additions started tallying like the Kenya December 2007 election results.

According to Njoro’s statement, the bills would have to be sorted out and “it is then that the body will be released for burial”. What Kenyans were being told here is that once they had fund raised to sort out the medical bill, the community would still have to fund raise to transport the body home because (according to logic based on Njoro’s statement) the body would not be released before the bills were sorted out. The need for cash was so urgent that two accounts were provided to facilitate the process. Njoro wrote:

“For those willing to make a donation and might not make it to the fundraising event, an account number is available for deposition. The account is 8327-9 993 590 272-7, Swedbank and the account holder’s name is Anne-Serah Kinuthia”.

At this point, everything seemed to have been running smoothly and Kenya-Stockholmers were preparing themselves psychologically for the gigantic fund raising on 28th November that was set at Flemmingsberg. Although question marks had been cast by the advanced layers of rumor mongers on why the medical bills had to be sorted out, there was a general agreement that Kashito’s body had to be transported to Kenya by all means. Then, something happened, firing all the known rumor mills in Kenya Stockholm, from Norsborg, Hallunda to Alby, Tensta, Rinkeby to Vällingby.

Mr. Richard Nganga Chege and Mrs Margareta Chege, Kashito’s parents, arrived in Stockholm accompanied by their son Mr. Charles Saa Nganga to collect the body. It is rumored that this arrival got the Kashito Stockholm Committee that was planning fund raising by total surprise prompting Njoro to make it a “Breaking news” kind of item because of its unexpectedness.

It was expected that the Kashito Committee in Stockholm had links with family members in Kenya and that a big event like the arrival of Kashito’s parents in Stockholm should have been pre-empted by the Committee instead of being converted into a “breaking news” event and AFTER they hand landed in Stockholm.

KASHITOSHITO’S HIDDEN NAMES
In the past, all Committees that have organized the transportation of bodies of Kenyans back home have had close contacts and almost daily communication with family members back home. In cases where family members have had to travel to Sweden to accompany the body, this fact had been known in advance.

When the brother of Ayieko Singoro, a Kenyan who died in Uppsala, travelled to Sweden to accompany his body, the fact was well known in advance by the Committee while when relatives of the late Mwangi (who used to work at the Canadian Embassy) arrived in Stockholm to collect his remains, the Mwangi committee was part of the planning of the journey from Kenya.

In the Kashito case, the Committee was caught unawares and what the leadership did in a public display that it was still in charge was to “break the news” after the event had already happened. By “Breaking the news” the Committee was avoiding a situation where Kenyans would wake up in the morning to find that Kashito’s parents were already in Stockholm together with his brother without the news having been made public earlier.

For many Kenya-Stockholm rumor mongers, the breaking news story was a cover up for a major crisis in the situation – evidence that the Committee was not in touch with the family although it was fund raising to “sort out medical bills” and to raise cash for the transportation of the body to Kenyan for burial.

Where did Kashito’s three family members get cash to travel to Sweden to accompany the body when Kenyans were preparing to empty their wallets to fund raise so that the body could be transported to Kenya? This is another key question that the Kashito Stockholm committee has never commented on thereby fuelling even more rumors. If Kashito’s family was financially well off to an extent that they could afford to pay for three air tickets within such short notice, why were Kenyans in Stockholm being kept in the dark?

For example, there could have been no problem if the Kashito committee told Kenyans that the family was capable of sorting out the bills but still proceed to fund raise for those who wanted to contribute. It could have been accepted and Kenyans could have contributed without stress. Instead, the Committee went ahead and cancelled the November 28th fund raising without explanations soon after Kashito’s family arrived in Sweden, fuelling further rumors.

After an analysis of much of the rumors in circulation, the sixty four dollar question is where money came from to sort out the huge bills at a time when Kenyans here were being told to fund raise. The explanation that was given by the Committee was weighed on the balance and found wanting. In any case, how comes the Committee did not know Kashito’s real names following his death because a key Committee member was described as a “close family friend” of the Kashito family.

According to Kenyans in Stockholm who have called KSB on a serious note to question the circumstances, Kashito’s real names were rushed in the blogs soon after these names were published on the Kenya-London based web site mrseed.com. After Kashito’s story was broken at the site, the Stockholm committee appears to have instructed Njoro to report that Kashito was not just “David Acquinas” as Kenyans had been told. Suddenly, the Committee had made a big discovery.

According to Njoro, “Kashitoshito’s, it can now be revealed, real names were David Aquinas Nganga but Kashitoshito is the name he preferred to use. He has a sister in London, Ann Nganga who is now in constant contact with the Kinuthia family and the Kashito Fundraising Committee. The Kinuthia family and the Ngangas are close family friends and neighbours in Kenya”. Information about Kashiot’s sister based in London had also gone missing in Kashito committee reports until the mrseed story. Did the Kinuthia family know Kashito’s real names and if yes, why was it made an “it can now be revealed” kind of news by our Njoro?

Surely, if Kenya-Stockholmers begin to germinate rumors in these kind of situations, who should be blamed? Rumor mongers or “information keepers”? In our next installment, find out how the Kashito committee was bullshitted by Ambassador Purity who refused to meet its leaders and the controversy about Kashito’s nationality.

Okoth Osewe

November 26, 2008 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 17 Comments