[UAH] WBK and Pojim as I was saying: It’s right and proper that the Nyayo era torture victims be compensated

Former MPs Gitobu Imanyara and Njehu Gatabaki were last week awarded Sh15 million and Sh10 million respectively by the High Court for torture, maltreatment and unlawful detention inflicted on them by the government.

The two, alongside Mr Bedan Mbugua, who was awarded Sh7 million, were journalists and crusaders for democracy and human rights during the dark days of the Moi dictatorship when anyone who sang out of tune or generally failed the Nyayometer test would be subjected to unspeakable brutality. They join a long list of victims who have successfully sued the government and won compensation.

It is interesting that while the government today is being made to pay millions to individuals who suffered under the one-party Kanu dictatorship, the British Government might be getting away with desultory chickenfeed for the Mau Mau prisoners it brutalised during the Independence war.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission must be commended for pursuing what seemed like a hopeless case to the British courts. A great moral victory was achieved when Her Majesty's government— after initially denying responsibility on the basis that colonial-era liabilities were inherited by the Kenyan state — owned up and offered an out-of-court financial.

The Sh2.6 billion might, at first glance, have seemed like an impressive settlement, but not when divided among the 5,228 claimants. That comes to slightly less than a paltry half-million each.

Factor in the legal and administrative costs and a Mau Mau monument that is part of the deal, and each of the men and women who say they were tortured in colonial detention camps win be lucky to take home Sh300,000 each.

Now, that might seem like a lot of money for poor and ageing peasants eking out their final days in despair and deprivation. But it is absolutely no compensation for the pain and injury inflicted by a repressive colonial system.

It might actually be adding insult to injury that those who sacrificed so much for land and country are compensated with crumbs. Which is why I just can't get why the lawyers and human rights advocates who drove the case agreed to such an insulting payout.

It is true, as Mau Mau veterans spokesman Gitu wa Kahengeri said, no amount of money can compensate for the suffering. Maybe it is also right, as British High Commissioner Christian Turner advised, that what is important is the historic gesture in Prime Minister David Cameroon publicly acknowledging colonial era abuses.

An out of court settlement – one in which then Prime Minister Raila Odinga played a role in urging his London counterpart to consider – speeds up justice and spares a lot of grief and heartache all round.

It will often fall short of the award that might have been expected should the matter have gone to the logical conclusion, but that is a fair price in exchange for fast-tracking the process.

In the Mau Mau case, however, the veterans were shortchanged. Therefore one must welcome additional suits being initiated by veterans who were not part of the 5,000 in the KHRC case.

My only fear is that too many ambulance chasers have seen an opportunity to make a killing. Already we seem to be getting more claimants than the entire population of colonial concentration camps.

There is also the logical next step in pursuing lawsuits against the Kenyan Government for its injustices against the ex-Mau Mau.

The Jomo Kenyatta regime and its successors refused to recognise the freedom war heroes. Those, like JM Kariuki and Kung'u Karumba, who dared to ask for recognition for the Mau Mau heroes, were killed.

To pen off on this one, just one favour to ask of the British envoy: Please point out where Mau Mau hero Dedan Kimathi was buried after being hanged in prison. The colonial regime kept meticulous records and must know the exact spot. His freedom, even posthumous, is long overdue.

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If I was retired President Kibaki, I would have just one retort for the Treasury fixers trying to rip-off taxpayers to the tune of Sh0.7 billion for a retirement office: Kumbaff, mavi ya kuku!

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com