Kenya’s President Ready to Accept British Report on Official’s Killing

NAIROBI, Kenya —  President Daniel Arap Moi on Sunday moved to end the Kenya government’s dithering over a Scotland Yard investigation of the killing of Foreign Minister Robert J. Ouko by ordering his attorney general to accept the investigation report from British authorities.

But he made no evident move toward assuring that the report’s conclusions will be made public.

The report was completed several weeks ago by Detective Supt. John Troon, whose British investigating team spent four months in Kenya this year trying to determine the circumstances of Ouko’s death.

Since then, however, Atty. Gen. Matthew G. Muli has refused to receive the document except from Troon personally. He rejected as “unethical and unprecedented” such alternatives as its delivery in Nairobi by the British Ambassador to Kenya. Troon, as it happens, is scheduled to retire from Scotland Yard this week.

The extended controversy over how to transmit Scotland Yard’s findings has encouraged speculation that the investigation implicates government officials, possibly even members of the Moi Cabinet, in Ouko’s death.

Ouko’s broken and charred remains were found Feb. 16 near his home in western Kenya, after his family reported that he had been missing for three days. An urbane and rapidly rising politician, Ouko was said to have had a serious falling-out with Moi just before his death.

The Kenya police initially suggested that the death was a suicide, sparking days of demonstrations around the country accusing the police of covering up a political murder. Kenya’s appeal as a member of the British Commonwealth for Scotland Yard’s assistance quickly followed.

In a statement Sunday, Moi recalled that when Ouko’s body was discovered “I assured (the public) that my government will exercise its best endeavor to investigate the incident.” However, he gave no indication that he intends the report, easily the most eagerly anticipated government document here this year, to be made public.