NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 27- On a day like today, exactly nine years ago, veteran Venezuelan diplomat Olga Fonseca was found murdered in her Runda residence.
The death took place just 12 days after she took over as head of mission in Nairobi.
Dwight Sagaray, the man who was acting as the head of mission before handing over to her, was arrested and charged with the murder alongside three security guards who are accused of failure to use reasonable means to stop the killing.
Sagaray became the first senior diplomat to be charged with a criminal offence in Kenya.
Almost everything about his career and downfall were swift including the murder case that turned his life upside down though the trial is still pending before the Milimani high court, nine years later.
According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), it was agreed as international law that all diplomats were considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country’s laws.
If they are to be charged, the immunity must first be waived, following a procedure, since they enjoy immunity from criminal proceedings.
However, Sagaray was stripped of his immunity by his country a day after Olga’s death and placed in a Kenyan police cell.
Strange enough, the Foreign Service of Venezuela never objected, at all.
Again, President Hugo Chavez, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, and Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz kept silent about the whole issue.
Sagaray, the main suspect in the murder charge, rose very fast in the Venezuelean Foreign Service.
His rise has been described as almost as swift as his downfall. He was a lucky man who rose faster, but fell harder in his career where he appeared to have been at the right place at the right time.
Sagaray had previously worked as a lawyer for the Labour Ministry where his tasks included representing Venezuela at international meetings to discuss labour issues.
He was hired at the Venezuelean Foreign ministry in July 2010 and within a few days he was sent to Kenya where he served briefly before being promoted to the second position at the Embassy in Nairobi.
When the former Ambassador Gerardo Carrillo Silva fled Kenya in March 2011, after he was accused of sexual harassment by three male Kenyan employees of the official ambassadorial residence, Sagaray became the top representative in Kenya.
He took control of the embassy, including the accounts.
Mid July 2012, officials in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela deployed Fonseca to Nairobi to take over as the Charge d’affaires, only to be found murdered on July 27, 2012.
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