A former flight officer with the Kenya Defense Forces implicated in the 1982 military attempted coup has been awarded 10 million by the court.
Employment and Labor Relations Judge Onesmus Makau awarded the 57 year old Adam Isilu Mutinda the amount as compensation for violation of his rights.
“I enter judgment for the claimant in the sum of Sh10 million plus costs and interest at court rates from the date hereof,” ruled Judge Makau.
The judge ruled that Mutinda was entitled to payment of compensation of damages for the violation of his rights and individual freedoms as per the former constitution.
The former military man testified that he was arrested for allegedly participating in the failed putsch and taken to Langata Barracks. He was later detained at Kamiti prison.
While in custody, he was tortured, wounded, stripped naked and paraded before the families of the army officers, forced to lie on hot tarmac while naked, whipped with wire cords, slept on a lice infested matters and denied proper medical care.
He told the judge that after serving his prison term, he was denied access to his residence in the military barracks and as such, he lost all his personal belonging such as his photographs, certificates and his flying logbook such as a flight officer he could not pursue a career as a pilot.
Mutinda contended that he was arrested when he was 20 years old and had expected to retire at 55, with a pension.
He said that other of his colleagues who had suffered a similar fate had successfully sued the government and that those who remained in the military have now scaled up.
