Informant murdered in hunt for Rwandan genocide fugitive

NAIROBI - The hunt for a notorious Rwandan genocide fugitive took a bloody twist yesterday when it emerged that a key Kenyan informant had been murdered in a mafia-style execution.

William Mwaura Munuhe, 27, was found dead at his home in Nairobi's exclusive Karen suburb last Saturday, the Daily Nation reported.

He had promised to deliver Felicien Kabuga, one of the masterminds behind the 1994 Rwandan genocide, to US investigators in exchange for a NZ$9.2 million bounty.

Last Thursday he arranged for armed police to wait outside his house, where Mr Kabuga was invited for a fake business meeting. But the alleged war criminal failed to show up. Two days later worried police broke down the front door. They found Mr Munuhe lying face-up on his bed with a bullet wound to the head.

Yesterday the US ambassador to Kenya, Johnnie Carson, confirmed the story, describing it as "regrettably true". The US is offering the $9.2 million reward for the 10 leading genocide suspects. Mr Kabuga has been on the run since the early 1990s.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accuses the millionaire businessman of financing and arming the Interahamwe militia that carried out the worst atrocities in an orgy of killing that left up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. But Mr Kabuga has kept one step ahead of investigators by exploiting both his considerable wealth and, apparently, his top-level connections with Kenya's previous government headed by Daniel arap Moi.

In recent years Mr Kabuga has bought property and run businesses out of Nairobi, according to the International Crisis Group. When his daughter married in 1995 the bill was footed by the family of Kenneth Matiba, a prominent opposition politican and wealthy businessman. And in 2001 ICTR investigators traced him to houses owned by Hosea Kiplagat, President Moi's nephew.

In one instance President Moi's son, Gideon, owned the property next door. However his luck started to run out when Kenyans elected a new government last month. Shortly afterwards the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, accused a senior civil servant, Internal Security chief Zakayo Cheruiyot, of sheltering Mr Kabuga. Mr Cheruiyot was subsequently dismissed from his position and interviewed by police. He denies sheltering Mr Kabuga but admitted yesterday that he knew him.

The case raises disturbing questions for Kenya's newly elected president, Mwai Kibaki. It calls into question the loyalty of Kenya's police, a notoriously corrupt body that has allowed tribal violence to flare in rural areas in recent days. When Mr Kabuga thwarted a July 1997 capture attempt, also at a house in Karen, investigators found a hand-written note explaining that he had been tipped off by a Kenyan police officer.

The case also questions the efficacy of the multi-million dollar US reward system. Although three suspected war criminals have been apprehended, another three have successfully fled the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, in the past six months, according to one analyst. Rwandan Hutus living abroad are reluctant to give up information.

"It's not about the money. It's a fight for them," he said.

- INDEPENDENT