Ruthless PC behind Wagalla massacre, Kaaria, dies at 91

Benson Kaaria was among a clique of old-school administrators who believed a security order by a superior was far heavier than the person giving it and everything, including lethal force, must be used to fulfil it.

That was the thinking that informed the anti-banditry operation he oversaw as the Northeastern provincial commissioner in 1984. Some 5,000 men were herded into Wajir airstrip and kept for a week without food or water under the scorching sun before being executed.

Kaaria would tell the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in 2011 that if given a chance to do things differently, “I would have put the people into Wajir prison as it had space and could have accommodated over 200 people. If there was an overflow of people, they could have been taken to Wajir social hall.”

But the “operation was a big success. I have no apology on what happened. The much I can do is offer my sympathy to those who lost their lives and to the survivors.”

The ruthless state functionary, described by his family as kindhearted and generous, is dead.

He was aged 91 and is survived by a large family.

According to TJRC transcript on June 14, 2011, the operation was ocassioned by the perennial ethnic clashes in Wajir, Mandera and Garissa, plus the suspicion that some elements from Somalia may have had a hand in the violence.

Kaaria said the operation was triggered by an attack on civil servants who were having drinks at a joint in Garissa.

The bandits shot at them, killing four on the spot and wounding several others between 8 pm and 9 pm. Kaaria called a joint emergency meeting of the district and the provincial security committees to assess the situation.

“It was then decided that the bandits must be pursued.”

He said his teams drew up a plan to round up all the Degodia men, women, children and their animals for interrogation to smoke out the bandits, but as the PC he declined to approve it, only ordering the rounding up of all Degodia men at Wajir airstrip.

He explained that prior to expansion of the operation to places like Wajir, the clans had been ordered to surrender their arms and the Ajuran complied while Degodia refused, hence their targeting.

He blamed the massacre on the Degodia community for ignoring the order to surrender illegal firearms. In Garissa, Somali men were gathered at Garissa Primary School for vetting.

He admitted to an order in 1980 to arrest and detain members of the Somali community in Garissa after four civil servants were killed by bandits.

Houses were then burnt and women raped amid deaths attributed to security agents, but Kaaria defended his officers and blamed the fleeing bandits.

“We prepared an operational order, rounded up all adults and took them to the open primary school grounds for interrogation and screening in order to know who the perpetrators were. In the course of that operation by the security forces, several houses in Bula Karatasi went up in flames,” he said.

“It is believed that either the fleeing bandits or security forces torched the houses as they were pursuing the bandits.”

Kaaria was appointed a PC in April 1980 and posted to Northeastern until April 1984. He previously served as DC in Machakos.