An informer killed before laying a trap to catch a key Rwandan genocide suspect was courageous, the United States embassy in Kenya said on Thursday.
Nairobi businessman William Munuhe Gichuki had agreed with FBI officials in Kenya to stage a meeting at his home with Rwandan Felicien Kabuga, accused of helping finance the 1994 genocide.
But Munuhe died at his home in circumstances described as suspicious on January 14, one day before police surrounded his home for the planned meeting. In a statement issued on Thursday, the US embassy said it deplores Munuhe’s ”tragic and unfortunate death” and ”applauds the courage he displayed.”
”While the precise circumstances of his death are mysterious and as yet unresolved, the Embassy still believes that his death is directly related to his willingness to come forward with information on the whereabouts in Kenya of Felicien Kabuga,” said the statement.
Kabuga faces indictment at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which is prosecuting architects of the 1994 genocide, in which the government organised the killings of some 800 000 ethnic Tutsis and opposition ethnic Hutus.
The US government offered $5-million last July for information leading to Kabuga’s capture, saying he was believed to be hiding in Kenya. Munuhe ”came forward voluntarily to ICTR investigators with information as to the whereabouts in Kenya of Felicien Kabuga,” said the embassy.
”Throughout the investigation, ICTR and embassy staffers remained in regular, close contact with him — frankly because of concerns for his safety.”
Kenyan police surrounded Munuhe’s house in a Nairobi suburb on January 15, the day of the scheduled meeting, but Kabuga did not show up. The informer failed to answer repeated phone calls, so the authorities later broke down the door of his house and found him dead in his bed.
Initial reports suggested he died from a bullet to the head, but an autopsy failed to pinpoint the cause of death, according to the Kenyan police. – Sapa-DPA