Informer killed in failed sting to trap genocide suspect

An informant who was helping investigators track a notorious fugitive from the Rwandan gencide has been murdered in Kenya.

William Mwaura Munuhe, 27, was found dead at his home in the exclusive Nairobi suburb of Karen on Saturday. Mr Munuhe had promised to deliver Felicien Kabuga, an alleged mastermind behind the 1994 genocide, to United States investigators in exchange for a $5m (£3m) reward.

Last Wednesday, Mr Munuhe arranged for police to wait outside his house, where Kabuga was invited for a supposed business meeting. But Kabuga failed to show up. Three days later, Mr Munuhe was found by police,lying face up on his bed with a bullet wound to the head.

The US is offering the $5m reward for the 10 leading suspects in Rwanda's genocide. America's ambassador to Kenya, Johnnie Carson, described Mr Munuhe's death as regrettable.

Kabuga has been on the run for years. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accuses the millionaire businessman of financing and arming the Interahamwe militia that carried out atrocities that left up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.

But Kabuga has kept ahead of investigators by exploiting his wealth and, apparently, his connections with Kenya's previous government headed by Daniel arap Moi.

In recent years Kabuga is said to have bought property and run businesses out of Nairobi. When his daughter married in 1995 the bill was paid by the family of Kenneth Matiba, a prominent opposition politician and wealthy businessman. And in 2001 ICTR investigators traced him to houses owned by Hosea Kiplagat, Mr Moi's nephew. In one instance Mr Moi's son, Gideon, owned the property next door.

But his luck started to run out when Kenyans elected a new government last month. Shortly afterwards the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper, accused a senior civil servant, the internal security chief Zakayo Cheruiyot, of sheltering Kabuga.

Mr Cheruiyot was dismissed from his position and interviewed by police. He denied sheltering Kabuga but admitted he knew him.

The case raises disturbing questions for Kenya's new president, Mwai Kibaki. It calls into question the loyalty of Kenya's police, a notoriously corrupt body.

When Kabuga evaded a capture attempt in 1997, also at a house in Karen, investigators found a note saying he had been tipped off by police.

The case also questions the efficacy of the multimillion dollar US reward system. Although three suspected war criminals have been apprehended, another three have successfully fled the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, in the past six months, one analyst said.

Rwandan Hutus living abroad are reluctant to give up information. "It's not about the money. It's a fight for them," the analyst said.