Father Gabriel Dolan, a renowned columnist with the Standard Newspaper, has severed links with the Standard Media Group-owned paper.
In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, Dolan stated that he arrived at the decision after editors refused to publish an article criticising former President Daniel Arap Moi’s regime.
Dolan says he had penned the piece to honour victims of Moi’s oppressive rule.
Standard Group is owned by Moi family.
Dolan shared a cartoon drawing by Gaddo stating that Moi, who died on February 4, 2020, wanted to silence people even in his death after ruling Kenya with iron and fist for over two decades.
“Today I resigned as a columnist with Moi Standard Group as they wouldn’t publish my piece on honouring victims of Nyayo Chambers etc Even in death he wants to silence truth as Gaddo
illustrates, ” he wrote.
Today I resigned as columnist with Moi @StandardKenya as they wouldn't publish my piece on honouring victims of Nyayo Chambers etc Even in death he wants to silence truth as @iGaddo illustrates pic.twitter.com/8qOJAUg8CN
— Gabriel Dolan (@GabrielDolan1) February 20, 2020
The Irish citizen, who resides in Kenya, is also a human rights activist.
Moi’s 24-year rule was characterized by arrests, detention without trial, torture and mysterious death.
Read: Gov’t Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna Says State Not In A Hurry To Fire Workers Attached To Late Moi
Critics say Moi, who was laid to rest on February 12, 2020, was keen at silencing anyone who opposed his government.
Moi’s political detainees were denied access to their family or lawyers. They were held much longer than the legally stipulated 24 hours before appearing in court or being held without trial.
Documents recently shared by daughter to a member of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (CRPPK) detail arrest, detentions and harassment of University lecturers, students, writers, lawyers, journalists, civil servants and peasants who dared to challenge Moi’s regime.
In one of CRPPK documents shared by Kui Kihoro, daughter of the late Wanjiru Kihoro, the group published a disturbing account of one of the detainee’s in the torture chambers.
Read Also: 40 Staffers Who Worked For Moi To Lose Jobs As State Ends Funding
The detainee gave an account of his 55th day in the cells. He recorded that he had been put in ankle-deep water without clothes and food round the clock in a 5th by 6th cell and left to wear out and die.
“One is in total isolation and sometimes as grinding noise is transmitted to dog the mind, ” the detainee wrote.
In the cells, light was scarce and would go out at night “to let in ghosts and ogres”.
“I have sat on my bottom underwater until blisters and pains the same goes for 6 days and 7 nights with or without sleep. My feet have taken in too much water and are painful to walk on. It’s as if a person is driving red hot pins through at times. The whole experience is very painful. I can not believe the barbarity of it, ” he penned and vowed not to give up the struggle.
Some of the Nyayo victims died in police cells.
Read Also: Kenya’s Second President Moi Finally Laid To Rest
Some of the patriots who died in prison include then University of Nairobi Studen leader Titus Adungosi Oloo.
Adungosi, a third-year architecture student, was among individuals who were arrested after the 1982 attempted coup. He died in 1988 at Kamiti Prison where he had been condemned to 10 years in the cells, two months before his release.
Others like Koigi Wamwere, ODM leader Raila Odinga, the late Kenneth Matiba went through brutal torture in the cells.
Other Moi’ victims included writers Mugo Theuri, Njuguna Mutonya, Jimmy Achira, Paul Amina and Otieno Mak’Onyango and Robert Buke.
Read Also: Documents Lay Bare Torture, Gruesome Murders Moi’s Political Detainees Underwent
Wamwere recently said that he won’t miss Moi.
“I don’t want us to meet in the same place in heaven, ” Wamwere, who was detained and tortured for nine years, opened up.
The late Moi has for a long time been linked with the murder of prominent opposition leaders who died mysteriously during his reign.
A report presented in parliament in 2010 stated that late Rober Ouko, who served as Foreign Minister from 1979 to 1983 and from 1988 to 1990, was murdered in State House lodge, Nakuru, in February 1990, after fallout out with Moi.
The report called for investigations into top officials, including Moi’s then-top aide, Nicholas Biwott.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings