Nine warders were later identified despite massive cover up of the acts and finally convicted, but the families still believe justice has not been served. Five of the nine were later released from death row in 2020 after a protracted appeal.
Through human rights lobby Independent Medio-Lego Unit, the families have been on a long wait for a two-decade civil suit to end so they get compensated.
However, there has been little progress in the case as state representatives keep asking for adjournment.
Imlu officials told the Star that they have not explained to the court the figures it should give as compensation to the families.
They said that in arriving at the payout, the court should take into account the painful death the seven suffered, the anguish of their families, the length of time the case has taken and the resources they have used in pursuing their rights.
“[T]he court interest rates have been raising since the filing of the suit as such we may not have the exact figures of amount spent as special damages in the matter and the gross human rights violations of right to life the court is at liberty to award general damages as it deems,” the lobby said.
The case is up for public hearing in open court on February 10.
The bizzare murder of the seven took place on September 3, 2000. The official position of the prison department was that the capital offence convicts who were domiciled in the isolated block E wing of the maximum prison attempted a failed jail break.
They said that the seven were spotted by prison officers on duty in the wee hours of the September 4 morning and shot on the spot.
Their bodies were then hurriedly buried at a little-known cemetery in Nyeri. Prison officials would then report the attempted break and swift response to neutralise the dangerous convicts to the police.
They claimed the seven cut iron bar grills on a window space to escape.
That was the start of the end of the big lie.
Pressured by civil society actors, including Imlu, police probe saw a court inquest conducted resulting into the bodies being exhumed on order.
A postmortem examination of the decomposed bodies showed they suffered massive clobbering and torture by the officers using crude weapons.
Some of them had missing eyes, ears and noses. Some had crushed skulls and limbs and badly injured hands when they apparently tried to shield their heads from the massive rain of the clubs.
Eleven prison officers would be later traced and linked to the incident, but only nine stood trial before then High Court judge Nicholas Ombija.
Investigation showed that in fact, there was no attempted break. The seven were targeted for elimination.
Bernard Mwirichia, who was a cell mate to the seven killed, was lucky to escape the onslaught. He is one of the witnesses in the Imlu court action.
His account of the incident was that that morning, a hooded man stood by the cell door, unlocked the padlock and called them out by their names one by one. They were told they were being transferred to another maximum prison, he said.
They were stripped naked for a search as is norm in the detention facilities to ensure they were not carrying contraband to the establishments.
Outside the cell, a rain of clubs started. Mwirichia escaped for his life and it would take him four days to be found. All his seven friends were not lucky. He is lucky to be a live today.
During the trial, judge Ombija ordered that he be taken to the prison to inspect the scene of crime.
During the visit, he had some prison officers stage an escape drill through the window space whose grilles the seven had allegedly attempted to escape through. Not even one was able to pass through it.
On December 18, 2008, the judge convicted all the nine of murder and sentenced each of them to death.
“Having found all the nine accused guilty of murder, I sentence each and every one of them to death on count one. The sentence in respect of the five other counts are suspended. They have a right of appeal of 14 days,” the judge ruled.
Ombija has since retired.
Six years later in 2014, the nine mounted an appeal against their conviction and sentence. Five were successful when a verdict was rendered in 2020. Four remain on death row.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
