Anguish as State sits on Sh4b owed to victims of injustice

Former assistant minister Otieno Mak’Onyango in his house during the interview at Ngong town [PHOTOS: JEFF OCHIENG/STANDARD]

By JOE KIARIE

Kenya: An award of millions of shillings in compensation by Kenyan courts to victims of state injustices often sparks off jubilation among the petitioners.

After violation of their rights by state agents, majority of the awardees, on the verge of bankruptcy due to years wasted in detention, huge medical bills, protracted yet costly court battles and tainted https://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images, count on the legal compensation to reconstruct their lives.

But the cold breath of reality sinks in once they leave the corridors of justice and start pursuing the money at various Government offices, key among them the Attorney General’s (AG’s) office, the Office of the President and the Treasury.

With the Government puzzlingly taking years to settle the claims, many beneficiaries are reduced to ‘destitute’ millionaires. They silently languish in want and some die while still waiting for the cheques.

Currently, it is estimated that the Government is holding onto Sh4 billion owed to thousands of successful claimants, some of who were awarded the money back in the 1990s.

On Thursday, the Commission on Administration of Justice (CAJ) filed an application at the Milimani Law Courts seeking to have Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government Mutea Iringo as well as AG Githu Muigai compelled to pay a woman over Sh7 million awarded by a court in compensation four years ago.

The woman (identity concealed), who suffered inhuman physical and mental torture in the hands of state security officers in 2001, is going through untold misery despite the Treasury confirming it authorised her payment last year. The amount has since risen to over Sh10 million due to accrued interest.

In the application, CAJ chairman, Otiende Amollo, said in a sworn affidavit there has been undue delay in paying the money, a move he says constitutes both administrative injustice and mal-administration in the public service.

This unfolded barely two months after the arrest of a state counsel in the Attorney General’s office after he allegedly tried to extort Sh300,000 from the 42-year-old woman with a promise to fast track the payment.The move by CAJ is likely to result in Mr Iringo being summoned to court to explain why his ministry is yet to settle the legal claim.

In correspondence seen by The Standard on Saturday, the State law office in July last year stated it had on several occasions written to the Ministry of Interior urging them to settle the award sum amounting to Sh10 million.

In a letter reference number EFN 87/036/XXXI (30) dated June 18, 2013, then National Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua approved the settlement and advised  Iringo that the same be factored in the 2013/2014

“In this regard, the Treasury authority is hereby granted for you to make compensation payments against each of the court cases listed herein below,” the letter reads, listing the woman among eight other claimants.

Last February, the PS presented himself in court to explain why his ministry was yet to pay out Sh31.6 million to Tanzanian national, James Koroso, for wrongful detention and torture. This was after High Court Judge George Odunga upheld an arrest warrant against the PS after he failed to honour summons. Koroso stated that the six-year delay in payment of the award had cost him his matrimonial home.

Suffering in silence

Iringo had in December also been summoned to court to explain why Sh727,706 had not been paid out to former constable, Mwanza Mukoma, for unfair dismissal and prosecution.

Former assistant minister and Alego Usonga MP, Otieno Mak’Onyango is among claimants who are languishing while waiting for compensation.

Mak’Onyango was awarded a sum of Sh20 million in June 2012 in compensation for violation of his fundamental rights after he was arrested following the foiled 1982 coup. He now cannot afford decent food, leave alone medicine despite suffering from diabetes and critical hypertension.

Despite being sickly, neither his weekly calls to the AG’s office nor his bi-monthly letters addressed personally to the Attorney General has elicited any positive response.

“I think they just want me to die quickly so that they can take my money,” says the frail former MP.

Former Runyenjes MP Njeru Kathangu, also a former political detainee, is equally still waiting for his dues. He  also chairs the Citizens for Justice, an organisation that brings together victims and survivors of the Nyayo House torture chambers and which helped file over 120 cases against the Government from 2003.

The politician, who was detained at Nyayo House, was in January 2012 awarded Sh4.5 million in compensation for multiple violations of his rights by the state, but he wonders why it has taken so long for the amount to be processed, terming this as delaying tactics influenced by politics.

“This is proof that the current Government harbors hatred against us as the Kanu regime did. Let them not work as if they sympathise with the governments before them,” says Mr Kathangu.

Indeed, many claimants have languished and eventually died before receiving their payment. Among them are renowned liberation heroes Peter Kihara Young, Ng’ang’a Thiong’o, Francis Mkombozi Karanja and Munyui Kahuha.

Kihara, who was awarded Sh2.5 million in July 2009, died of cancer in September 2010. Thiong’o, who chaired the Release Political Prisoners social movement, was awarded Sh1.5 million but also died in 2010. Ironically, their widows were promptly paid the claims after the deaths.

Kihara’s widow, Josephine Wanjiru, recalls how her husband withered away as the Government stuck to his money, with then Prime Minister Raila Odinga stepping in to personally offset his hospital bills.

“He suffered so much during his last days while his money was being held somewhere. It is only prudent that the Government pays all the remaining claimants their money and not wait until they are dead,” says Wanjiru, 67.

Whenever the claimants inquire about the money from the AG’s office and the OP, they say they are often told that the National Treasury is yet to release the money.

Consequently, questions abound as to exactly where the buck stops, with an accusing finger pointed at the Ministry of Interior.

Administrative inaction

The Interior Ministry wrote to the National Treasury later in July regarding compensation claims, including Makonyango’s.

In response, the National Treasury wrote back later the same month via a letter Reference No. EFN87/036/XXXI (53) granting the ministry authority to settle legal compensation claims amounting to Sh72 million.

In the letter, Mutua Kilaka, the Financial Secretary, advised the ministry to prioritise and settle legal compensation claims with the already approved budgetary allocation to avert further accrual of interest.

Law Society of Kenya chairman, Eric Mutua, states that billions of shillings remain unpaid in compensation, especially in successful cases against the Government.

“It is as if the decisions of the court do not bother the Government,” he says.

Amollo, concurs that there are thousands of cases involving pending settlement of compensation, with the claims running into billions of shillings.

“Most cases regard former Government employees and individuals who have suffered in the hands of state agents. his amounts to administrative inaction by the Government and we will zero in on the individual officers responsible,” he adds.

Our efforts to reach Deputy Solicitor General Muthoni Kimani for a comment on the matter were futile as she was unreachable on phone.