Paul Ndirangu Kioi, an activist from Njoro – Nakuru County was found murdered on December 8 and his body dumped in Ndarugo River in Nakuru. 

Paul had been last seen alive on the evening 7th December 2020. 

Apart from being a human rights defender, Paul worked as a cyclist to put food on the table for his family. He was passionate about human rights. He would not by-pass a violation that came to his attention. 

Community members who spoke to Defenders Coalition’s regional representatives said that one time, Paul was an avid believer in good governance and social accountability.He once followed up on a double bursary allocation to beneficiaries. Through his actions, local Members of county Assembly and the area Member of Parliament were brought to account. 

In his advocacy and awareness creation work, he used social media as a tool to bring to light human rights violations. Among his most recent cases that Paul was documenting and creating awareness on, were those of sexual and gender based-violence and exploitation of young girls in his community.  

During his last days, Paul is said to have  been pursuing two major cases related to business and human rights in his home area. A private developer had set a timber processing factory within the local community’s residential area. With an unwelcome and unpopular neighbour in site, waste from the factory became a living hell for the community living in the area. Their health was and is still at stake due to the nature and quantity of pollution. 

For safety reasons, the community members sought to relocate, voluntarily but forced by prevailing circumstances. In doing so, they agreed to enter into a pact with the said owner of the timber factory. However, the timber factory owner wanted to buy their pieces of land at his own terms, at the price that he wished for. 

Paul could not take this and he was vocal on the abuse of social status by the factory’s owner. He was seen many times standing against the violation of what can be termed as a planned and systematic forceful eviction of community members from their land. 

It is at this point that his tribulations started. He started receiving threats against his life. He reported of the threats twice at Njoro Police Station under the OB numbers. Fellow activists, (Names Withheld) told the Defenders coalition that on 28th November, 2020 Paul was arrested by Njoro police officers and spent a night in a police cell without being booked.  In solidarity with Paul, the HRDs sought the reason for Paul’s detention and why he was not being booked and presented in court to take a plea. 

After inquiring from the OCS Njoro, they were informed that he had been arrested on allegations of threatening one of the timber factory owner’s friend. The HRDs would then proceed to secure Paul’s release on a cash bail of Kshs. 5,000. It was at this point that he was given a date with the judicial process; Paul was to be arraigned in court on 4th December, 2020. 

Surprisingly, this never happened on pretext that the person with the allegations wished to withdraw the case. It is on this basis that Paul refused the case to be withdrawn and demanded to proceed to court saying he had enough evidence against the social misdeeds of those behind his arrest. On 3rd December 2020, he posted on his social media (Facebook) over impending court proceedings the following day. Prior to this, Ndirangu had on 22nd November 2020 posted his frustrations of people following him and wanting to take his life. He however did not provide information of who they were.

On the fateful day of his disappearance, Paul left his house at around 2pm to join his two friends (a lady and a man) at Njoro Posta where they relaxed at Njoro Park till around 6-7pm. He left them to pick some cash from an undisclosed location promising to return and buy his friends dinner. What the two friends did not know was that that would be the last time they would see Paul alive. He never returned and his friends had to leave at around 8.00pm after waiting in vain. 

The following day at around 7am in the morning, Ndirangu’s lifeless body was found by passersby dumped in Ndarugo River. On 11th December, postmortem was carried out at Egerton University Mortuary by a pathologist in the presence of family and his fellow HRDs. 

The report showed that Paul was strangled to death and a blunt object used to hit him from behind on the head. The report suggests that he was hit after he was already dead.

Though investigations are ongoing, there is little progress. Paul’s killers are still at large, walking freely as not a single suspect has been arrested. 

 We call for speedy investigations by authorities to ascertain the following:

1. Who masterminded the killing of and or Who killed Ndirangu?
2. What was the Motive of his killing?
3. Does the killing linked to his work and more so his advocacy to have the private land developer do their business while ensuring the rights of the people living in the area are protected?
4. What is the next course of action to ensure Ndirangu and his kin gets Justice? And what should be done to protect Ndirangu’s HRD colleagues who still are seeking justice for the victims of abuses and human rights violations.

We call on the international community to join us in calling for a speedy conclusion of the murder of activist Paul Ndirangu Kioi