Former Subukia MP Koigi Wamwere’s mother has challenged the decision by a lower court not to compensate her for alleged torture by the government 27 years ago.
Monicah Wangu Wamwere, 88, wants the Supreme Court to declare that her fundamental rights and right to freedom from torture were grossly violated by the Kenya Police and General Service Unit.
Early this month, the Court of Appeal dismissed her compensation case. Justices Mohamed Warsame, Agnes Murgor and Patrick Kiage affirmed the High Court’s decision that she had not proved her case against the state.
Through lawyer Gitau Mwara, Wangu says it is unjust to condemn her on technicalities of having filed her suit 20 years after the historical injustice but within only three years of the new Constitution.
“The decisions of the Court of Appeal and High Court are contradictory, biased, discriminatory and unconstitutional as it imposed a non-existent limitation of time which affects other freedom corner cases and all past historical injustices cases pending in courts,” Wangu says.
According to the court documents, Wangu says she was denied her rights by legal technicalities of lapse of time.
“To say the victims of human rights violations from 1986 to 93 are time-barred is using unconstitutional technicalities to deny the victims their substantive justice,” she says.
She had moved to court claiming since her son was detained by the first and second governments of this country, she suffered personally, psychologically and economically as a mother.
Her political activism and human rights struggles were entangled with being the mother of Koigi wa Wamwere, she says.
"As a result, I was arrested and tortured for resisting police brutality at the Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park and All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi during the clamour for the release of political prisoners in 1992."
However, Justice Isaac Lenaola declined to award her any compensation on grounds she had not proved her torture claims with visible injuries or severity of pain evidence or lost land parcels.
Edited by R.Wamochie
