Mama Monicah Wamwere-the mother of politician Koigi wa Wamwere and Mama protesting high court decision after their petitions seeking for compensation for torture was dismissed on Friday April 15, 2016.
BY SAM ALFAN
Two elderly mothers of former political detainees left the High Court on Friday April 15 empty handed after their petition to be compensated for atrocities laurate committed against them during the Moi regime collapsed.
Mama Monicah Wamwere-the mother to politician Koigi wa Wamwere and Mama Priscilla Mwara Kimani, the mother to renowned advocate Gitau Mwara, did not present convincing evidence of their tribulations to justify the award of damages against the State.
High Court Judge Isaac Lenaola dismissed their claims for compensation on the basis that they never tendered any medical reports to prove they suffered torture during their hunger strike at the Freedom Corner in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park in March 1992 to press for the release of 24 political detainees.
The Judge also said there was an inordinate delay in presenting the cases in court for adjudication and no cogent reasons were offered to justify the long time it took the alleged victims to lodge them.
The two complainants were among a group of women who stripped naked under the glare of local and international press and were brutally attacked by armed policemen and chased into the All Saints Cathedral where they took refuge. They claimed they were seriously injured, regularly harassed and hounded by the police and provincial administration at their homes for the next one year.
The women had been joined by political activists and sympathizers in the clamour for the release of their sons who had suffered harrowing experiences at the hands of overzealous State security agents at the infamous Nyayo House torture chambers in Nairobi. The victims were subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted by the dreaded Special Branch on suspicion of undermining retired President Daniel arap Moi’s administration.
Lawyer Gitau Mwara, whose other petitions were dismissed, said the complainants were aggrieved at the outcome and will challenge the decisions before the Court of Appeal. Only one former political activist, David Njuguna Githiru was awarded Sh1million for his tribulations in Nyayo House.
Previously, Justice Lenaola awarded the elderly mother of lawyer Rumba Kinuthia, Ms Milka Wanjiru Kinuthia and her daughter Margaret Wangui Sh1.5million compensation for similar violations and torture.
