Ngugi, wife in horror ordeal: Couple humiliated in rape attempt -- By Bernard Momanyi & Jane Muholo
RENOWNED novelist and scholar Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his wife were yesterday hospitalised following an attack by four armed assailants who stormed their residence at the Norfolk Towers in Nairobi.
During the midnight raid in their exclusive apartment, the novelist suffered facial burns from cigarette butts while the wife Njeeri Ngugi sustained multiple injuries. Doctors said both were out of danger and could be discharged soon.
Professor Ngugi returned from the United States two weeks ago after being in exile for 22 years.
Giving a chronology of the ordeal in which the thugs attempted to rape his wife, Prof. Ngugi said the assailants arrived at the apartment at around 7:30 pm on Wednesday and disappeared, only to come back around midnight.
Prof. Ngugi said the thugs stormed into the living room when he was seeing off one of the organisers of his current visit, Mr. Kiragu Chege, at 11:30pm. He said the four men arrived with guns, a machete and a huge wire cutter and rushed into the room where they overpowered the occupants and forced them to lie in different parts of the room.
The thugs, Prof. Ngugi said, overpowered him, the visitor and his wife and demanded money. They took away 500 US dollars (approximately Sh40,000), a laptop, Ngugi’s wedding ring and his wife’s earrings. The thugs also stole Njeeri and Kiragu’s cellphones and cut off the landline.
“During the whole ordeal, they did all sorts of acts of humiliation, including burning my face with cigarettes, and finally tried to rape my wife,” the scholar said in a statement. He said he and the wife fought as much as they could with the thugs during the midnight scuffle.
He said Mr. Kiragu also assisted after managing to release himself from under a seat where he had been bundled by the thugs. The trio were finally rescued by police and taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, before being transferred to Nairobi Hospital.
The couple was still smarting from the harrowing experience yesterday as they thanked all Kenyans who had continued to give them support and encouragement. Dr. Dan Gikonyo said the couple was out of danger and would be discharged soon.
Prof. Ngugi said he wanted some privacy in the hospital and asked friends and relatives to understand and accord him the necessary cooperation. The couple said it was suffering from psychological trauma though physically, they were alright.
Police said the couple was attacked by four armed assailants who burst into their residence, assaulted and robbed them. In what police have termed as a “job planned by insiders”, the couple was held hostage for over two hours by their attackers, believed to have been armed with guns, machetes and crude weapons.
When Prof. Ngugi attempted to resist, he was seriously burnt by a cigarette butt on the forehead. His wife Njeeri sustained serious injuries during the attack. The incident was confirmed by Nairobi Provincial Police Officer King’ori Mwangi, who was equally baffled by circumstances under which the thugs managed to gain entrance into the “tightly manned apartment.”
Mr King’ori said a preliminary report filed by investigators indicated that a security dog at the apartment was masked to prevent it from barking.
Police believe the thugs had gained entrance after cutting down the perimeter fence whose electric gadgets were not activated, an issue that raised more suspicions.
“We have already arrested a night guard who was on duty on that night when the couple was attacked and injured. What I can say at the moment is that investigations are in progress and I am sure we will get to the bottom line of the matter,” he told journalists at a press conference in his boardroom.
However, he could not answer any question from reporters who sought clarification on contradictory theories of sexual harassment on the couple during the attack.
According to the PPO, Ngugi had informed the police that the thugs demanded to know whether he was a member of the outlawed
Mungiki sect, a fact he denied, before they attacked him and his wife Njeeri. Their children were not present during the attack, as they were said to have been left in Limuru.
The PPO said Prof. Ngugi was forced into the room by the four men as he saw off his relative Kiragu, who had called on him at the apartment a few metres from Central Police station.
Prof. Ngugi’s Programme Coordinator and the Managing Director of the East African Educational Publisher Mr. Barrack Muluka said he had suspended plans for the renowned novelist, who was set to meet his relatives in Limuru before addressing public lectures at various public universities across the country. The renowned novelist is in the country for a month-long tour after his 22-year exile in the United States of America (USA).
Security officers were pondering over how the attackers managed to sneak into the tightly-guarded apartment that is also directly opposite the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which is guarded by armed General Service Unit (GSU).
Copyright © 2003 Kenya Times Media Trust; all rights reserved.
SOURCE:
http://www.kentimes.com/13aug04/nwsstory/topstry.html~~~~~~~~~~
Why I sympathise with Ngugi wa Thiong'o, PLAINLY SPEAKING -- By David Ochami
In Ngugi’s
Detained, written by Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o in 1984, two years into his exile, the author makes a scathing attack on the presence of Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi and its location opposite the National Theatre.
Wa Thiong’o considers the hotel, especially its Delamere Restaurant, to be a reminder of Kenya’s colonial past which should have been removed or renamed at independence, and a symbol of betrayal to Kenyan masses by post-colonial regimes that had, for selfish reasons, refused to sever the umbilical cord that tied the country and its institutions to the colonial state.
Its presence, therefore, next to the National Theatre, which ordinarily should have been harnessed by the Kenyatta and Moi regimes as a focal point of the country’s cultural renewal, was evidence of this betrayal. The theatre was allowed to remain a place of bourgeois entertainment, not didactic works and conscientism. The anti-colonial revolution had aborted with the departure of the white people.
The names Lord Delamere and Norfolk Hotel next to Muindi Mbingu Street, named after a nationalist whose incarceration around the site led to the massacre of hundreds of Kenyans in the 1920s, was the physical embodiment of this principle of betrayal, incomplete revolution, a philosophy that would come to infect post-colonial Kenya’s direction and the options its leaders took in politics, the economy, education and manner in which it would address the past.
The campaign against the whitewashing and cultural emasculating aspects of post-colonial Kenya formed the basis of Wa Thiong’o’s scholarship. In his learned works, he spoke against neo-colonialism, corruption and so forth, and suggested reformist paradigms and won local and world acclaim for the great debates he elicited.
Inevitably, he won admirers and enemies. He was detained without trial for his views and had to flee into exile fearing incarceration by a government that did not tolerate dissent of any nature. In exile or at home, Wa Thiong’o continued to excite interest.
Matter of fact he wrote his most famous works in exile, thus refocusing interest in him and also peer jealousy. The jealous school continues to this day to accuse Wa Thiong’o of hiding behind false arguments to justify or mask his long stay in Europe and USA, the seat of capitalism and bourgeois stupidity, which he has railed against all his life, and a penchant for tribalism.
That Wa Thiong’o was wounded at the Norfolk Towers, where he has been staying for some days, will inevitably be seized by critics as a demonstration of another of the contradictions surrounding him.
“Why on earth Norfolk, of all the places?” … one would ask, knowing how passionately the author wrote about this place and what it symbolised!
The totality of Wa Thiong’o’s transformation, which began with the flight to the West, where he remained pursuing economic gain, and justifying that long stay after 1992, appears, therefore, to have become manifest by his acceptance of a lavish reception when the country is suffering hunger and want and his loud silence on the many political debates that are going on in Kenya.
One must sympathise with Wa Thiong’o’s suffering. There can be nothing worse and more humiliating than for a man of his age and stature to be held captive by outlaws attempting to rape his wife and beat him .
The new regime is indicted! How it could neglect the security of such a person, only the Internal Security minister should tell. Already there are conspiracy theories, the most disturbing being that Wa Thiong’o was a victim of state terrorism once again, this time committed by a beleaguered regime scared to death of Wa Thiong’o’s reconnection with the peasantry.
After all, Mwai Kibaki and his rise to power and the tragedy it has become do not constitute the kind of holistic transformation Wa Thiong’o paints in his books, which, in part, explains why the scholar did not run home immediately after Moi’s ouster. Wa Thiong’o has made it clear he has not come to stay.
This nation should not begrudge the old man the right to return to Europe and enjoy his money and old age, now that Kenya has proved to be a thankless place. As long as this society refuses to liberate itself totally, this will never be a mythical land to which long-lost sons would wish to return. It therefore makes no sense for novices like Robinson Njeru Githae to imagine that promising Wa Thiong’o a job at Nairobi University and trying to bask in the author’s shadow constitutes what Kenyans have clamoured for since 1982 when Kibaki moved a motion to outlaw plural politics.
What is not known is why the author has taken a long time to critique the Kibaki regime for its bungling, even the fact that it has ignited the Kenyatta politics of ethnic domination, which caused him time in gaol. Has Wa Thiong’o forgotten that Kibaki has always been an ethnic ideologue and an opportunist who served the Moi regime loyally, going to the extent of chairing a committee that sanctioned disappearances (of political opponents) and political murders?
The act of robbery at Norfolk must by now remind the scholar that it pays to be circumspect about Kenya’s politicians, especially those under attack such as Kibaki and Githae. Wa Thiong’o should resist the temptation to be captured by such people and organisations, purporting to advocate what he has preached for years.
He should lead the Third Liberation from the front, even if it is from exile.
Copyright © 2003 Kenya Times Media Trust; all rights reserved.
SOURCE:
http://www.kentimes.com/15aug04/editorials/comm3.html~~~~~~~~~~
Profile: Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'o now writes only in Kikuyu or Swahili.
Acclaimed Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o, attacked by armed robbers during a visit home after 22 years in exile, has been a controversial figure in Kenya for the past quarter of a century.
As a writer, playwright, journalist and lecturer, he has been widely regarded as East Africa's most influential writer.
His criticism of colonial rule, Christianity and post-colonial abuses earned him as much admiration from the public as trouble from Kenya's authorities.
Ngugi, as he is usually known, belongs to Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyus.
In the late 1970s, he announced that he would not write in English anymore, to concentrate on writing books in Kikuyu or Swahili only.
He was born James Ngugi in 1938 in British-ruled Kenya, attended a mission-run school and first became a devout Christian.
He later rejected Christianity and changed his original name in 1976 from James Ngugi, which he regarded as a sign of colonial influence, to Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
TROUBLE:Ngugi’s decision to write in Kikuyu, together with his criticisms of both British and Kenyan rule, have posed threats to his security. In 1976 Ngugi got involved in running a local theatre group.
At the end of December 1977, Daniel arap Moi, then vice-president, ordered Ngugi detained in Mamiti Maximum Security Prison.
The arrest followed the publication of a play he had co-written and that carried a strong political message,
Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I want)Ngugi was imprisoned under the Public Security Act for a year without trial. After his release, Ngugi did not recover his professorship at the University of Nairobi.
When his theatre group was banned by Kenyan officials in 1982, Ngugi then left his country for a self-imposed exile in London.
In 1992 Ngugi became professor of comparative literature and performance studies at New York University. He vowed not to return until President Moi stepped down, which he did 18 months ago.
His most famous novels are
Weep Not Child (1964),
The River Between (1965),
A Grain of Wheat (1967) and
Petals of Blood (1977).
Just two weeks ago, Ngugi ended his 22-year self-imposed exile and returned to Kenya where he was greeted by a crowd of thousands.
“I have come back with an open mind, an open heart and open arms. I have come to touch base. I have come to learn,” he declared, adding that he owes his return to the collective struggle of the Kenyan people.
Wa Thiong’o is in Kenya for just a month, during which he will be conducting a countywide tour financed by the East African Publishing House, giving lectures and launching his latest novel in Kikuyu,
Muroogi wa Kigogo, which he has worked on for five years.
Since he was attacked by armed gunmen on 11 August, his publishers have announced the suspension of his tour.
SOURCE:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3559560.stm~~~~~~~~~~
Ngugi’s bombshell: My wife was raped! By Justus Ondari & Bernard Momanyi
PROFESSOR Ngugi wa Thiong’o yesterday startled journalists at a press conference when he announced that his wife Njeeri was raped during last week’s attack on them at a Nairobi apartment, but pledged his unwavering loyalty to the country.
“I want to correct something about my wife (on the night of the attack). It was not attempted rape but it was rape. Period!” declared Prof. Ngugi, speaking for the first time about the Wednesday night’s attack as doctors announced that the couple would be discharged today.
Dr. Dan Gikonyo who, together with Dr. Frank Njenga, sandwiched Prof. Ngugi throughout the function, announced that the professor and his wife would be discharged today, when he is expected to issue a comprehensive statement on the incident.
Obviously making an effort to add a light touch to the painful and humiliating episode, the renowned scholar had even sought to clarify to the press the names of his wife.
“I wish to correct you that the names of my wife are Njeeri wa Ngugi and not Mary Njeeri.
You should not baptise her!!” said Prof. Ngugi as he went on to spell out the name:
N-j-e-e-r-i. Asked whether he regretted his homecoming after 22 years in exile because of the attack, Prof. Ngugi reiterated that he is a Kenyan and together with other Kenyans, he is the one to correct it.
“I am a Kenyan and this remains my country, for better or worse. It is for me and other Kenyans to make it a better Kenya,” replied Prof. Ngugi at the conference held at the Nairobi Hospital where he has remained admitted with his wife since they were attacked.
And a visibly weak but defiant Prof. Ngugi declared that he will not allow the attack by the ‘‘evil people’’ to affect him and vowed to go on with his schedule in the country.
“We should not let people who do not like what we are doing to kill our spirit. We should not fear those who try to kill the spirit and should not allow them kill the spirit,” said Ngugi in his characteristic language that dominates all his literary works.
He added that, “I wish to confirm to you that, once the doctors give us a clean bill of health, my wife and I and our publishers shall continue with our programme. We cannot let our Kenyan people down,” said Ngugi.
Prof. Ngugi clarified that save for the simple question that the attackers asked him during the incident, on whether he is a
Mungiki member, he has no other reason to show that they were members of the proscribed sect.
“I really have no idea, save for that simple question about whether I am a member of Mungiki, and there was no follow-up or discussion about it,” said Prof. Ngugi.
The press was kept waiting outside as from 10:00 am before Prof. Ngugi, clad in a white hospital gown and blue slippers, walked with slow but steady steps for about 50 metres between his room and the conference hall where he entered at exactly 3:00 pm.
He was accompanied by a regular police officer, Sister Nancy Kihara who is in charge of the North Wing of the hospital where he is staying and Mr. Barrack Muluka, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the East African Educational Publishers.
Meanwhile, the police yesterday arrested and detained the driver and the car of the man he was with during the fateful night, bringing the number of suspects arrested so far to six.
Eng Chege Kiragu’s driver was picked up by detectives investigating the matter, who also impounded his Mercedes Benz vehicle.
Police believe the driver could shed light on the investigations because he was allegedly in the car outside the Norfolk Towers where the couple was attacked and robbed and hence he could have seen the assailants, who were still at large.
SOURCE:
http://www.kentimes.com/16aug04/nwsstory/topstry.html~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: A telephone chat with Ngugi and Njeeri …Dear friends:
I have had an opportunity to talk with both Ngugi and Njeeri this morning. Thanks to Tim Reiss who managed to get the telephone number for the hospital in Nairobi.
Both Ngugi and Njeeri are in good spirits, but still needing and receiving medical attention. From their description of the attack in their apartment at Norfolk Towers, it is obvious that this was a mean, well-calculated and vicious undertaking. In Ngugi’s words, the attack was an attempt to break their spirit by humiliating them personally, even after they had conceded to all the demands of the attackers and handed over their material possessions (money, laptop and brief cases with their papers, etc).
Like many other friends, I have asked them to reconsider their stay in Kenya, but they are determined to see their program through, and intend to finish with their visit with the proper stages that have been set up for them. They are morally strong, and feel that they now have the “protective” gathering of friends and family, and a degree of policy security, around them.
There are basic medical and psychological issues that need to be addressed in relation to their present condition, and hopefully the colleagues at UC Irvine can be of some direct help with these. I will communicate with UC Irvine and will also be back in touch with Ngugi and Njeeri tomorrow and keep you all posted.
Thanks for the outpouring of support and concern. I will eventually share all of these with both Ngugi and Njeeri.
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