Compensation without justice is a recipe for more State impunity

Youth during Saba Saba protests in Kitengela, on July 7, 2025. The government has announced plans to compensate victims of protests. [File, Standard]

Last week’s announcement by the government that it will compensate victims of protests dating back to 2017 has stirred deep unease. This unease is not born out of a rejection of relief for grieving families. It is rooted in the reality that compensation without justice is an empty gesture. It is a plaster placed over a festering wound. In short, it is a performance that sidesteps the harder and necessary work of accountability.

Since the youth-led protests of June 2024 against punitive taxes and again in June and July 2025 anniversaries, dozens of young people were killed, many abducted, and hundreds injured. These were not faceless statistics. They were brothers, sisters, friends, and children who were exercising their constitutional right to be heard. Families have been left without their loved ones while others have been left with permanent body injuries. Yet no police officer or state agent has been convicted for these killings, maiming and disappearances. Investigations have been perfunctory, and accountability has been quietly filed away as a future discussion.