BY SAM ALFAN.
A former Airforce officer has sued the government for illegal detention, torture and dismissal from the Armed Forces during the 1982 attempted coup.
Joseph Mungai Kariha who was a second Lieutenant posted to Ground to Air Unit (GADU) at Embakasi in 1982, is seeking general exemplary damages for violation of his constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms.
He also wants the court to declare that his dismissal from the service by the Defense council of Kenya Armed Forces in March 1983 was unjustified, unfair, wrongful therefore null and void.
Kariha also wants the Public Service Commission ordered to pay his salary arrears, allowances, pension plus interests from the date of dismissal until to date.
The former army officer claims on the morning of August 2, 1982 himself and other officers were arrested and detained at Lang’ata Barracks over the failed coup. He says he was locked up with other wounded Airforce personnel in a congested cell spluttered with blood.
In the morning of August 3, 1982 together with others he was transferred to Eastliegh Airbase guardroom where he was placed in filthy congested cells with blood and slept on the floor.
“I was confined at the Eastleigh Air Base for about 30 days and then without any explanation together with others we were transferred to Naivasha Maximum Prison…On arrival at the Naivasha prison, I was taken to an isolated block which was terribly cold and had full time lighting,” he says in court documents.
He says for a close of one month he never saw the sunlight and the food in prison was half cooked which made him develop stomach problems.
Sometimes in November 1982, he says he was transferred to Kamiti Minor Prison where he spent about 45 days in a heavy lice infested cell.
“In January 1983, I was taken to Naivasha Maximum Prison where I met people who were recuperating from water logged cell torture and I constantly lived in fear due to horrendous experience narrated,” he stated.
Kariha explains that in February 1983, he was returned back to Kamiti Maximum prison where he stayed until March 1983.
He says he was later in March taken to Kahawa Barracks where he was charged with failure to suppress a mutiny and was thereafter dismissed from the Armed Forces.
According to Kariha, he was coerced to sign a document that showed that he was an enemy of the state and which referred to as a persona non grata.
“I signed the document because the officers in charge threatened that if I didn’t sign, they would imprison me…After signing the document, I was given bus fare and some money to buy a shirt and a trouser and was later escorted to the Nairobi railway station,” he stated in court documents.
He says he could not get employment because he was branded a rebel and did not have the skills to fit in the outside world.
He wants the court to declare that the government violated his constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms by illegally detaining him, torturing him and dismissing him from the service.
