DCI Launches Fresh Investigation Into Tom Mboya's Assassination
The response comes after the article cited a 92-year-old man who confessed to buying a gun that was used to assassinate Mboya.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has announced a fresh investigation into the assassination of Tom Mboya on July 5, 1969, after new revelations emerged in an article published by the Saturday Nation dated July 6, 2024.
In a statement on Monday, July 8, the DCI revealed that it would take the necessary action once investigations into the incident are completed.
The response comes after the article cited a 92-year-old man who confessed to buying a gun that was used to assassinate Mboya.
"The attention of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been drawn to an article in the Saturday Nation dated July 6th, 2024.
Officers stand guard outside the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road. /NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE
"The article reports that a 92-year-old man purchased the pistol that was used in the killing of Tom Mboya, a trade unionist, educator, Pan-Africanist, author, former minister and statesman. The DCI has initiated an investigation and necessary action will be taken once the investigation is complete," the statement read in part.
The man, Ndwiga Kathamba Muruathika, claimed involvement in the events leading up to Mboya’s death, including the purchase of the pistol used in the killing.
The elderly man, now residing in Runyenjes, Embu County, recounted how he, along with two other individuals, was part of a mission to eliminate Mboya.
Ndwiga’s claims include being tasked to trail Mboya until his assassination on July 5, 1969, and his subsequent procurement of the murder weapon from the black market along the Kenya-Somalia border.
Tom Mboya Profile
Fully named Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya, the late Mboya was a Kenyan trade unionist, educator, Pan-Africanist, author, independence activist, and statesman. He was one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya.
He led the negotiations for independence at the Lancaster House Conferences and was instrumental in the formation of Kenya's independence party – the Kenya African National Union (KANU) – where he served as its first Secretary-General.
He laid the foundation for Kenya's capitalist and mixed economy policies at the height of the Cold War and set up several of the country's key labour institutions. Mboya was Minister for Economic Planning and Development when he was assassinated.
Mboya's intelligence, charm, leadership, and oratory skills won him admiration from all over the world. He gave speeches and participated in debates and interviews across the world in favour of Kenya's independence from British colonial rule. He also spoke at several rallies in the goodwill of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
In 1958, at the age of 28, Mboya was elected Conference Chairman at the All-African Peoples' Conference convened by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He helped build the Trade Union Movement in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as across Africa.
He also served as the African representative to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). In 1959, Mboya called a conference in Lagos, Nigeria, to form the first All-Africa ICFTU labour organization.
City residents pose for a photo in front of a monument in honour of the late Nationalist Tom Mboya at the Kenya National Archives open space on October 4, 2022. /NATION MEDIA GROUP
Mboya worked with both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to create educational opportunities for African students, an effort that resulted in the Kennedy Airlifts of the 1960s enabling East African students to study at American colleges. Notable beneficiaries of this airlift include Wangari Maathai.
In 1960, he was the first Kenyan to be featured on the front page cover of Time magazine in a painting by Bernard Safran.
