Police brutality victims give government ultimatum over compensation

Kenyan riot police beating an unresponsive fallen protester with wooden sticks until they break and repeatedly kick him several times.[CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images]

Families of Kenyans killed, injured or otherwise affected by police brutality have given the government until Wednesday, August 5, to compensate verified victims of protest-related abuses,  warning that they will resume peaceful demonstrations if their demands are not met.

Speaking on behalf of the families under the banner of the 6.25 Movement, Mike Brian from one of the victims' families, said they had waited long enough for compensation despite the government's commitment to compensate victims whose claims had already been verified.

"We, the families and victims of police brutality, have suffered enough. We have buried our loved ones. We live with permanent injuries. We carry trauma that will never heal," Brian said.

He said although the government had established a compensation framework, verified claims and committed funds for victims of police brutality, many affected families were yet to receive any payments.

Brian accused authorities of subjecting victims to endless bureaucracy, saying families had been referred from one office to another, including the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), chiefs and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), instead of receiving compensation.

"Why are we being tortured by bureaucracy while our pain is ignored? Why do chiefs have anything to do with compensation for police brutality? Why are we re-traumatised every single day?" he posed.

He demanded the immediate release of compensation to every verified victim and affected family, insisting that compensation was a right and not an act of goodwill by the State.

"Compensation is not a favour. It is a right. It is the least the State can do after destroying lives," Brian said.

The families, however, maintained that compensation alone would not deliver justice, saying those responsible for killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other alleged human rights violations must also be prosecuted.

"No amount of money will bring back our loved ones, but justice will restore the dignity of our nation," he said.

They demands come less than two months after the government unveiled a national reparations framework developed by KNCHR to guide compensation and other forms of redress for victims of human rights violations committed between 2017 and 2025.

The framework provides for compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition as part of a broader justice process.

During the presentation of the framework to President William Ruto in June, KNCHR said it had received 1,937 claims from victims and other organisations, verifying 1,101 cases across six categories of violations.

These include 245 cases involving the right to life, 473 involving violations of freedom and security of the person, 135 torture cases, 75 cases of sexual violence, 138 property rights violations and 35 enforced disappearances.

The government also announced a Sh2 billion compensation programme for eligible victims.

They warned that unless there was meaningful action by August 5 towards compensating verified victims, families would have no option but to take to the streets peacefully to demand what they said had already been promised.

"We refuse to disappear into silence. We refuse to be forgotten. We refuse to accept endless promises while our families continue to suffer," Brian said.