mzeiya
Elder Lister
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive of August, 1982. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Kenya would have been led by an air force private had an attempted coup on Aug. 1 succeeded, according to testimony in a Tanzanian court by another air force man seeking political asylum there.
The testimony of Sgt. Pancras Oteyo Okumu at extradition hearings yielded the first indication of the identities of the leaders of the attempted coup, and provided a first-hand account of the degree of disorganization surrounding the attempt to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi.
It did not, however, illuminate the reasons for President Moi's subsequent dismissal of senior police officers. And neither did it explain why President Moi's still-jittery Government has, in the wake of the attempted coup, begun an apparent purge of prominent figures that suggests that support for the rebellion went beyond his initial description of it as an extreme act of hooliganism.
Sergeant Okumu identified the leader of the rebellion as Senior Pvt. Hezekiah Ochuka, who had assumed the title of chairman of a socalled People's Redemption Council that planned to replace President Moi.
At 3 A.M. on Aug. 1, the sergeant said on Thursday, the attempted coup got underway with the takeover of Eastleigh air base just outside Nairobi, and by 4 A.M. the nearby Embakasi air base had also fallen.
At 6 A.M. Private Ochuka and Sergeant Okumu, who was also said to be a member of the Redemption Council, appeared at the Voice of Kenya radio station in central Nairobi where they broadcast in English and Swahili that the military had taken power, the sergeant testified.
By 10 o'clock, however, the Government counterattack was under way, the sergeant said, but he was not sure who was involved. ''I sent someone to find out and order resistance,'' he said. ''I heard shooting and then I was informed that it was the army infantry.''
At this point he lost touch with Private Ochuka, he continued, so he went back to Eastleigh where he found the private trying, in vain, to call in air strikes against Government forces from the base at Nanyuku, north of here, which had joined the revolt.
Then, by the sergeant's account, a degree of confusion set in. Helicopter gunships appeared over the horizon, but the rebels were unsure whose side their pilots were on. He and Private Ochuka decided to flee and found two pilots ready to fly them. But the cupboards containing the pilots' head-sets and the keys to the Buffalo transport plane they were planning to use were locked. So they had to be broken open with gun-butts before the plotters could make good their escape. An Uncertain Destination
Even then, the sergeant said, he was not sure where they were going. As they came into land at Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, to the south, ''I thought we were in Mogadishu,'' the Somali capital to Kenya's north, he said. Both he and Private Ochuka are seeking political asylum in Tanzania. Kenya wants their extradition.
In testimony Friday, Private Ochuka gave a similar version of events on Aug. 1, asserting that the rebels ''actually overthrew'' President Moi's Government for a short while before the loyalist forces regained control.
It remains unclear whether the officers who flew the two lowranking men out were involved in the rebellion or had been prevailed upon at gunpoint to head for Tanzania, a leftist-governed country that has strained relations with capitalist-oriented, pro-Western Kenya.
The impression from Sergeant Okumu's testimony was one of lowranking air force personnel botching a coup. The Government's reaction to it, however, has raised speculation among Kenyans that there are other aspects to the attempted ouster, involving more senior figures whom President Moi has termed ''big men,'' whose identities have not been made public or are being covered up.
President Moi's response has also been marked by the same controntational style that his Government displayed before the attempt to overthrow it and which probably, in the view of Western diplomats and Kenyan analysts, contributed to the passions that fueled the air force revolt. Air Force Disbanded
In recent public speeches President Moi has threatened to deal ''ruthlessly'' with those deemed to be dissidents, ''even if it were my own mother.'' In practice the policy has meant the disbanding of the air force, the continued detention, incommunicado, of most of its 2,100 members, and the confiscation of eight passports belonging to prominent political figures.
Leaders of the students who supported the revolt have also reportedly been detained, the University of Nairobi remains indefinitely closed and the Government, while relaxing a curfew enforced on Aug. 1, evidently does not feel secure enough to lift it altogether. Neither have roadblocks, manned by the paramilitary General Service Unit and by uniformed policemen, disappeared.
In a shake-up of the military and paramiliary units under his command, President Moi has dismissed Police Commissioner Ben Gethi and the General Service Unit commander, Peter Ndogo Mbuthia. The deputy army commander, Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Mohammed, who led the Government counterattack on the radio station, has been appointed to head a new air force, while there has been no word on the fate of the former commander, Maj. Gen. P.K. Kariuki.
A further impact of the attempted overthrow has been a continuing nervousness among members of Kenya's large Asian community, many of whose businesses and stores were looted and ransacked by both rebels and loyalists.
According to press accounts published here, at least 30 Asian women were raped either during the disorder on Aug. 1 or later by Government troops conducting house-to-house searches for rebels and looted property.
The Asians in Kenya hold a virtual monopoly on retail trading and their wealth has long been resented by other Kenyans.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 29, 1982, Section 1, Page 20 of the National edition with the headline: LEADER OF KENYAN COUP ATTEMPT SAID TO HAVE BEEN A PRIVATE.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Kenya would have been led by an air force private had an attempted coup on Aug. 1 succeeded, according to testimony in a Tanzanian court by another air force man seeking political asylum there.
The testimony of Sgt. Pancras Oteyo Okumu at extradition hearings yielded the first indication of the identities of the leaders of the attempted coup, and provided a first-hand account of the degree of disorganization surrounding the attempt to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi.
It did not, however, illuminate the reasons for President Moi's subsequent dismissal of senior police officers. And neither did it explain why President Moi's still-jittery Government has, in the wake of the attempted coup, begun an apparent purge of prominent figures that suggests that support for the rebellion went beyond his initial description of it as an extreme act of hooliganism.
Sergeant Okumu identified the leader of the rebellion as Senior Pvt. Hezekiah Ochuka, who had assumed the title of chairman of a socalled People's Redemption Council that planned to replace President Moi.
At 3 A.M. on Aug. 1, the sergeant said on Thursday, the attempted coup got underway with the takeover of Eastleigh air base just outside Nairobi, and by 4 A.M. the nearby Embakasi air base had also fallen.
At 6 A.M. Private Ochuka and Sergeant Okumu, who was also said to be a member of the Redemption Council, appeared at the Voice of Kenya radio station in central Nairobi where they broadcast in English and Swahili that the military had taken power, the sergeant testified.
By 10 o'clock, however, the Government counterattack was under way, the sergeant said, but he was not sure who was involved. ''I sent someone to find out and order resistance,'' he said. ''I heard shooting and then I was informed that it was the army infantry.''
At this point he lost touch with Private Ochuka, he continued, so he went back to Eastleigh where he found the private trying, in vain, to call in air strikes against Government forces from the base at Nanyuku, north of here, which had joined the revolt.
Then, by the sergeant's account, a degree of confusion set in. Helicopter gunships appeared over the horizon, but the rebels were unsure whose side their pilots were on. He and Private Ochuka decided to flee and found two pilots ready to fly them. But the cupboards containing the pilots' head-sets and the keys to the Buffalo transport plane they were planning to use were locked. So they had to be broken open with gun-butts before the plotters could make good their escape. An Uncertain Destination
Even then, the sergeant said, he was not sure where they were going. As they came into land at Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, to the south, ''I thought we were in Mogadishu,'' the Somali capital to Kenya's north, he said. Both he and Private Ochuka are seeking political asylum in Tanzania. Kenya wants their extradition.
In testimony Friday, Private Ochuka gave a similar version of events on Aug. 1, asserting that the rebels ''actually overthrew'' President Moi's Government for a short while before the loyalist forces regained control.
It remains unclear whether the officers who flew the two lowranking men out were involved in the rebellion or had been prevailed upon at gunpoint to head for Tanzania, a leftist-governed country that has strained relations with capitalist-oriented, pro-Western Kenya.
The impression from Sergeant Okumu's testimony was one of lowranking air force personnel botching a coup. The Government's reaction to it, however, has raised speculation among Kenyans that there are other aspects to the attempted ouster, involving more senior figures whom President Moi has termed ''big men,'' whose identities have not been made public or are being covered up.
President Moi's response has also been marked by the same controntational style that his Government displayed before the attempt to overthrow it and which probably, in the view of Western diplomats and Kenyan analysts, contributed to the passions that fueled the air force revolt. Air Force Disbanded
In recent public speeches President Moi has threatened to deal ''ruthlessly'' with those deemed to be dissidents, ''even if it were my own mother.'' In practice the policy has meant the disbanding of the air force, the continued detention, incommunicado, of most of its 2,100 members, and the confiscation of eight passports belonging to prominent political figures.
Leaders of the students who supported the revolt have also reportedly been detained, the University of Nairobi remains indefinitely closed and the Government, while relaxing a curfew enforced on Aug. 1, evidently does not feel secure enough to lift it altogether. Neither have roadblocks, manned by the paramilitary General Service Unit and by uniformed policemen, disappeared.
In a shake-up of the military and paramiliary units under his command, President Moi has dismissed Police Commissioner Ben Gethi and the General Service Unit commander, Peter Ndogo Mbuthia. The deputy army commander, Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Mohammed, who led the Government counterattack on the radio station, has been appointed to head a new air force, while there has been no word on the fate of the former commander, Maj. Gen. P.K. Kariuki.
A further impact of the attempted overthrow has been a continuing nervousness among members of Kenya's large Asian community, many of whose businesses and stores were looted and ransacked by both rebels and loyalists.
According to press accounts published here, at least 30 Asian women were raped either during the disorder on Aug. 1 or later by Government troops conducting house-to-house searches for rebels and looted property.
The Asians in Kenya hold a virtual monopoly on retail trading and their wealth has long been resented by other Kenyans.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 29, 1982, Section 1, Page 20 of the National edition with the headline: LEADER OF KENYAN COUP ATTEMPT SAID TO HAVE BEEN A PRIVATE.
