Three lecturers illegally detained by the Moi regime in connection with the 1982 coup have been awarded Sh46 million in damages.
The court ruled that the state violated the rights of Edward Oyugi, 76, Kamoji Wachira, 75, and Joseph Otieno, 78. They filed the petition in 2015. They were lecturers at Kenyatta and Nairobi universities.
Justice John Mativo awarded Oyugi and Wachira Sh20 million each. They were detained for two years under harsh conditions. The two were held incommunicado in several prisons, including Kamiti, Shimo La Tewa and Hola prisons. They were denied access to family members or lawyers and were held in solitary confinement.
Otieno was awarded Sh6 million because he was released after three days. The court ruled the torture meted out on him left him a shadow of his former self and he was unable to secure a job in the country.
For Otieno, it was a case of mistaken identity because after he was arrested, the following day police realised they had arrested the wrong person. They were looking instead for Alfred Otieno. But they held him until the next day.
“Considering both the physical and mental suffering, the destroyed careers, emotional suffering caused by separation from family members and life-threatening health complications attributed to brutality, I will award them damages,” Mativo ruled.
He said each petitioner narrated torture and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected by police.
When they were arrested in 1982, Oyugi was accused of failing to disclose why he and others wanted to overthrow the government of President Daniel Moi.
Wachira was accused of using students and plotting to overthrow the government. Each petitioner gave an account of being brutally beaten until they lost consciousness. They were held in dark waterlogged cells without food, water or toilets. They said they were forced to lie in water or remain standing for hours.
“The manner in which they were arrested, beaten, harassed, tortured, subjected to degrading treatment, held in degrading and inhumane conditions both at the police station and in detention, and the denial of food and medical care were all a blatant violation of the letter and spirit of Chapter Five of the retired Constitution,” the judge ruled.
Justice Mativo dismissed the argument by the state that the three had delayed, accusing them of waiting 33 years to file suit. “The petition was filed on October 22, 2015, five years after the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution and it is common ground that during the period before August 27, 2010, the political climate was absolutely not conducive for any citizen to file a challenge of this nature,” he said.