Trouble started the day the music died. It was the music of life. The music was packaged in the arts - in poetry in dance and in drama. It was found in paintings and in sculpture. In the way we spoke and even in the way we told stories and laughed. There was music in our manner of dress and in the gaiety of OUf walk. There was beauty here, there, everywhere - in everything. It was the beauty of life in a beautiful and kind world.

A regional organization has described Kenya as "making progress" in advancing wom­en's issues.

But the women's rights group said that although Kenya had made headway in handling economic, political, health and education matters it was still lagging behind its East African counterparts.

Officer who tried to broker cash payment before setting man free will be punished

By FRED MUKINDA

Police yesterday ordered that a man accused of raping a minor be re­-arrested and charged after he was freed from the cells of a Nairobi police station.

Spokesman Eric Kiraithe also said dis­ciplinary action will be taken against a senior officer at Karen Police Station who tried to broker a cash payment for the fa­ther of the rape victim before freeing the accused.

The officer arrested the victim's father and charged him with giving false infor­mation when he rejected the cash offer.Trouble for the casual labourer started in July when the accused man, a former neighbour, is said to have raped his eight­year-old daughter.

The man was arrested but the father was shocked when police asked him to accept money from the suspected rapist's family so that he could be released rather than take the matter to court.

Five months later, investigation into the case has virtually stalled regardless of a medical report showing that the Stand­ard two pupil was defiled,and the culpritroams free. I

On the day the man was released from police custody, the father was thrown into a cell, apparently for failing to accept the monetary settlement.

To justify their action, police arraigned him at the Kibera Law Court and charged with giving false information. The man he accused of defiling his daughter was listed as a police witness in the case.The court granted him ShlO,OOO bond

Age of victim whose father was arrested and defiler freed

Pending the hearing of the case, but una­ble to raise the amount, he was incarcerat­ed at the Industrial Area Remand Prison. He was held for three weeks until a good samaritan bailed him out.Once out of prison, he followed up the matter with the officer's boss and the charges were withdrawn.

The rape is said to have taken place on July lO, when the girl's parents had left their four children at home and a long­time friend visited.