Victims of Garissa KDF torture awarded Sh5m

The State will pay Sh5 million to four people injured by rampaging KDF soldiers in Garissa town four years ago.

A doctor and three traders were awarded the compensation by the High Court after being brutally beaten by KDF officers in 2012.

The officers were on a revenge mission following the killing of three of their colleagues by terrorists in the town.

The High Court gave the doctor, Harun Haji, Sh400,000 as damages while Waraga Hussein, a businesswoman dealing in khat, was awarded Sh1 million.

High Court Judge George Dulu also awarded Hassan Galbinur, a shopkeeper, Sh2 million. He lost a leg in the revenge attack.

Th court awarded Harun haji, also a businessman, Sh1.8 million.

“I will award the costs of the suit to the successful petitioners against the respondents jointly and severally,” the judge ruled.

Waraga, a trader for over 20 years, told the court that the market in Garissa town was razed down. She ran home. The next day she went to the market to check her miraa business.

She said as she approached the market she heard gunshots. Waraga who was carrying her daughter, then aged 11 months, said she placed the child on her back and ran back home. But she was hit by a bullet in the right leg and fell, and was again hit by a speeding vehicle on the road receiving more injuries on her left leg and left jaw.

She was hospitalised for a month.

The second petitioner, Galbinur, told the court that he operated a shop in Garissa town. He described how on November 19, 2012 he saw people running towards his shop.

Thereafter, he heard gunshots, closed his shop and walked outside, where he was shot by KDF officers. He was shot in the left shoulder.

He was admitted to hospital for seven days.

Another respondent, Haji, told the court that on the fateful day at 12.30pm, KDF officers suddenly appeared in town and started beating local residents indiscriminately.

IN COMMA

He said that the KDF officers found him near his house, and though he was a civil servant, pounced on him and beat him until he lost consciousness.

He was in a comma for 21 days.

The court heard that Haji suffered permanent disabilities on his left hand, which, to date, is paralysed.

Sheikh Mohammed testified that he was hit with a gun butt on the left eye, and cannot see properly to date. He also suffered an injury on the shoulder and on the back of the shoulder.

The judge declined to award a 17-year-old student whose eye was damaged on the fateful day, noting that he did not prove whether it was a bullet that hit him or something else.

“An injury such as the one on the eye of this petitioner need not have been caused by a bullet, or bullet particle,” the judge ruled.