Mr. Andrew Mwangura, the Program coordinator of the Kenyan chapter of the East African
Seafarers’ Assistance Program, was arrested by Kenyan police on Thursday, 3rd October 2007 and charged with issuing “alarming statements” in connection with the hijacked Ukrainian freighter, Fina, loaded with 33 Soviet made T-72 tanks, Rifles and heavy weapons.
Mr. Mwangura, who was the first person to announce that the hijacked Ukrainian ship was carrying tanks and other weapons headed for Southern Sudan, was arrested as the Kenyan government issued a Statement through Dr. Alfred Mutua, the government spokesman, that the arms cargo belonged to the Kenyan government. Mutua told journalists that Mr. Mwangura was arrested because “He appears to be their [the pirates’] spokesperson, especially when pushing for ransom to be paid,” to the estimated 50 Pirates who had demanded a ransom of US$ 30 million for the release of the ship
The arrest of Mr. Mwangura is disturbing because it appears to be a cover-up of Kenya government’s role in breaking an International arms embargo on Southern Sudan as a result of the genocidal war in Darfur.
Officially, the Kenya Seafarers Assistance Program, which Mr. Mwangura heads, is a piracy-monitoring group whose responsibility also includes advocacy of safety of crew members of hijacked ship, contacts with family members of crew in hijack situations and assistance towards the safe release of crew members in such dangerous situations.
According to the Kenyan police, Mr. Mwangura was arrested because “he knew too much” about the hijacked ship and its cargo. Kenya government officials have been cited in the local media as saying that Mr. Mwangura is the “chief negotiator” of the pirates because he had proposed that the pirates be given what they wanted for the sake of safety of the 21 Fina crew members.
Mr. Mwangura is an expert in his field of work and certain ODM-Scandinavia officials have had good contacts with him for the last seven years including the period when he was on a six-month study vacation in the United Kingdom about two years ago.
By virtue of his work, Mr. Mwangura has to be in a position of knowledge about hijacked ship in his area of jurisdiction and, for the Kenyan government to claim that he knew “too much” about Fina and its cargo is to deliberately avoid the reality in regard to Mr. Mwangura’s situation because the government has something to hide.
HIJACKED SHIP CARRIED THIRD CONSIGNMENT OF ARMS
Secondly, to suggest that Mr. Mwangura could be working for the pirates is to expose the degree of disparity of the government in a case in which an arms smuggling racket abetted by the Kenyan State may be in the process of exposure.
The view of ODM-Scandinavia is that Mr. Mwangura was taken into custody so as to give the government an opportunity to claim (without challenge) that arms cargo in Fina was not headed for Southern Sudan as Mr. Mwangura had claimed.
Our view is that the arrest of Mr. Mwangura represents a violation of freedom of speech and information by the Grand coalition government and we call upon President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to intervene directly in the case so that Mr. Mwangura could regain his freedom. ODM-Scandinavia also calls for the dropping of all charges facing Mr. Mwangura because they are fabricated, fake and untenable.
Instead of arresting Mr. Mwangura, the Grand Coalition government should use its Intelligence apparatus to track down culprits in government who may have been part of the conspiracy to smuggle arms to Southern Sudan at a time when the country was facing an arms embargo.
A patriotic and courageous Kenyan citizen of Mwangura’s caliber should be used by the State to understand the patterns of piracy in the Indian Ocean region instead of arresting and arraigning him in court on trumped up charges.
ODM-Scandinavia challenges the Coalition government to release details proving that the arms aboard Fina were purchased by the Kenyan government. According to media reports, the hijacked ship carried the third consignment of military hardware destined for Southern Sudan, the first shipment having taken place on November 2nd last year when 17 T-72 tanks derailed at Kokotani, about 30km from Mombasa damaging five of them.
On Januray 25th this year, 33 more tanks were ferried by train to Southern Sudan from the port of Mombasa. These revelations are evidence that the arrest of Mr. Mwangura allegedly for releasing “alarmist statements” were baseless because the Kenyan government has been involved in arms smuggling to Southern Sudan.
ODM-Scandinavia therefore calls for the unconditional release of Mr. Mwangura whose illegal arrest and detention elevates him to the status of the Grand coalition’s first political prisoner.
It is a big shame that at a time when millions of Kenyans thought that illegal arrests and detentions of Kenyan citizens ended with the defeat of the Moi dictatorship, the Grand coalition government is taking the country backwards in the democratization process. ODM-Scandinavia will continue to follow Mr. Mwangura’s case with keen interest to ensure that he is released from custody.
Martin Ngatia
Vice Chairperson
ODM-Scandinavia
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