Mark Agutu
16 August 2004
Nairobi — Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o spoke out for the first time yesterday on the shocking attack in which thugs tortured him and sexually assaulted his wife.
The US-based literary scholar revealed to a hushed press conference that his wife Njeeri was raped when gunmen subjected them to an hour-long ordeal in their executive city apartment.
But the 65-year-old former detainee, who was visiting Kenya for the first time in 22 years, bravely declared that the attack would neither kill his spirit nor make him hate his motherland.
"There is a saying that we should not let people who do not like what we are doing kill our spirit. We are continuing with our programmes as soon as doctors give us a clean bill of health. I cannot let the Kenyan people down," he said.
A four-man gang forced their way into the Ngugis' flat at Norfolk Towers in the city centre on Thursday and beat up Prof Ngugi, torturing him with burning cigarettes and whipping him with the butt of a pistol.
It happened barely a fortnight after they had jetted into the country to a red-carpet reception.
Yesterday he revealed that the gang also raped Njeeri as he and a colleague who also in the flat struggled with the thugs.
"In her case it was not attempted rape. It was rape, period," the don sadly told a press conference at Nairobi Hospital attended by local and international journalists
The confession was unsolicited, with Prof Ngugi offering the clarification as an afterthought. A statement on the attack issued last week by his publisher referred to "attempted rape"
Asked whether he regretted coming back to Kenya, Prof Ngugi declared:" I am a Kenyan. This is my country for better and for worse".
The couple first held lengthy consultations with the don's physician, Dr Dan Gikonyo, and psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga before the press conference.
It had been scheduled for 1pm but did not take place until almost 3.45pm.
Looking pale but composed, Prof Ngugi walked into the hospital's lecturer room flanked by the two doctors and East African Education Publishers managing director, Mr Barrak Muluka, who is in charge of his itinerary.
He wore a white hospital rob and sandals. A healing wound on the left side of his forehead - reportedly inflicted with a burning cigarette - stood out on his face.
Njeeri was not present but is expected to face journalists at another press conference at 10am today before the couple leaves hospital.
The gang had confronted Prof Ngugi as he showed Mr Kiragu out of the flat, rented for them by his publishers.
They burst in through the door and made them lie down in different parts of the room before beginning their sustained attack.
The gang, armed with two pistols, a machete and a pair of wire cutters, burst into the bedroom where his wife had been sleeping and, when Prof Ngugi heard her scream, he ran to her rescue but was beaten off and burned on the face with cigarettes.
Yesterday, Prof Ngugi said he called the press conference - his first since being admitted to hospital - to let Kenyans know that he and his wife had fully recovered.
Five security guards have been arrested by police investigating the attack. Detectives are trying to discover how the four-man gang was able to lie in wait near his heavily guarded apartment for four hours before carrying out the vicious assault.
And the police were investigating the possibility of a Mungiki link, following Prof Ngugi's reported remark that he was asked by the gunmen if he belongs to the banned sect.
He had just returned to Nairobi from Kampala where had given a lecture and was set to embark on the second phase of his literary programme when the incident occurred.
Asked about a theory being explored by police regarding a Mungiki link to the attack, Prof Ngugi said he did not understand the gang's motive. "I have no idea at all for the simple reason that the question was asked only once. There was no follow-up to it," he said.
A special team from CID headquarters has been formed to investigate the attack.
The author, who lives in California, has been in self- exile in the US for 22 years.
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