KENYAN PRESIDENT SUSPENDS CHIEF POLICE INVESTIGATOR

Agence France Presse — English
June 12, 2006 Monday 9:10 PM GMT

Nairobi

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday suspended the country’s top
police investigator and 11 other government officials involved in
the deportation of two Armenians allegedly linked to his family.

The Presidential Press Service also said Kibaki was setting up a
panel to investigate circumstances surrounding the deportation of
Artur Margariyan and Arthur Sargsian, for allegedly roughing up
customs officials.

Among those suspended were Joseph Kamau, the director of criminal
investigations department, Naomi Cidi, the deputy director of Kenya
Ports Authority (KPA), Winnie Wangui, an assistant secretary in the
water ministry, and five police officers attached at the airport.

On Sunday the president fiercely denied newspaper reports of family
links with Margariyan and Sargsian, suspected government mercenaries
whose extravagant lifestyle had turned them into celebrities in Kenya.

Kibaki threatened to sue the Sunday Nation newspaper for linking a
woman the local media claims is his second wife to the Armenians,
whom the government once defended as legitimate investors, while
opposition politicians said they were “mercenaries”.

The Nation claimed the suspended Wangui, daughter of the woman
identified in local press as Kibaki’s second wife, was seen with
the two Armenians, whose luxury cars and expensive jewelry made
local headlines.

“I have only one family which consists of the First Lady, Mrs. Lucy
Kibaki, daughter Judy Kibaki, sons Jimmy, David, Tony and their wives
and children,” Kibaki said in a televised statement on Sunday.

“I am personally distressed that the Sunday Nation chose to link my
family with the two foreigners who went to church accompanied by a
woman and other people whose names are not mentioned,” Kibaki said.

Kibaki demanded that the Nation “apologize to me and my family for
the blatant lies which attempt to associate my family with the woman
and the two foreigners”.

He added: “I am instructing my family lawyers to take the necessary
legal action to protect the integrity of my family.”

In March, influential lawmaker Raila Odinga started the saga when he
claimed the two were among hooded policemen who raided Standard Group
— the country’s second-largest media house — after it published a
report that Kibaki had held secret talks with his political opponent,
former ally Kalonzo Musyoka.

Before their deportation on Friday, police recovered AK47 rifles,
pistols, bulletproof vests and government vehicle licence plates in
their home in Nairobi.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress