According to information that has been gathered by Kenya Stockholm Blog, Mr. James Kiboi, the Kenyan diplomat who perished in a house inferno last Sunday, was last seen at “Masawa” bar in Oslo in the company of a group of Africans. The bar is owned by an Eritrean national and is popular with Africans in Oslo.
Mr. Kiboi was wearing a hip-hop like jeans trouser, baggy shirt and a red cap similar to the “Odinga cap”. The late diplomat left the pub very late before retiring at the ill-fated villa which caught fire last Sunday morning. It is still not clear what caused the fire which reduced the villa to ashes.
Mr. Kiboi left Stockholm on Thursday September 7th through Arlanda International Airport. He was driven to the airport by a Kenyan national resident in Stockholm.
There were about ten people in the villa where Mr. Kiboi died while the source which spoke to Kenya Stockholm Blog said that the occupants of the villa at the time of the fire were mainly Africans. Two of the occupants are still in hospital after suffering severe burns while others were treated and discharged. A 30 year old woman is among those who escaped with serious burns.
The crowd that was in the villa comprised both men and women who are reported to have been in the company of Mr. Kiboi earlier at Masawa. The source disclosed that at the table where Mr. Kiboi was sitting at Masawa, there were at least three ladies, all from Central province in Kenya.
The group that was with Mr. Kiboi appeared to have been people he knew well. It could not be confirmed whether all of them were Kenyans. The source said that it was not the first time that Mr. Kiboi was in Oslo with the same acquaintances. The source added that there was nothing suspicious between Mr. Kiboi and his friends and that he appeared to have been having a good time.
Asked why only Mr. Kiboi did not survive the fire, the source said that he might have been too intoxicated, adding that the diplomat might have gone to bed only a few hours before the fire broke out. Kenya Stockholm Blog has established that there was pandemonium in the villa after it was filled with smoke a few minutes after the fire broke out.
Mr. George Kinywa, the first secretary at the Embassy, left for Oslo on Monday to get in contact with the Norwegian authorities to try and establish what might have happened. Kenyans in Stockholm have not yet come to terms with Mr. Kiboi’s demise.
At the time Mr. Kiboi was in Oslo, Professor Wangari Mathaai, a Kenyan MP and former Nobel Peace Prize winner, was in Oslo for official functions. It could not be established whether Mr. Kiboi’s presence in Oslo was linked to Professor Mathaai’s activities in the Norwegian capital.
A staff member at the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm told Kenya Stockholm Blog that only Ambassador Daniel Mukiri Kinyanjui could comment on the Kiboi issue. The Ambassador was out of office.
Okoth Osewe
makosewe@gmail.com
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