Former Kenya Air Force soldier, Samuel Okumu Okwany, a key suspect in the 1982 coup d’état that plunged the country into a state of emergency before normalcy was restored in the long run is at crossroads with the government after a court ruling awarding him Sh7,000,000 compensation for illegal detention and torture was appealed.
After his release, Okumu sought legal justice that would see his case heard and compensated where necessary.
Through his lawyer, Okumu claimed that between August 1982 and August 1988, Special Branch Police Officers (respondents) tortured him physically and psychologically for 32 days in the Nyayo House Torture Chambers, arrested him and held him without charge for a year at the Shimo la Tewa Maximum Security Prison, and violated his rights to human dignity in breeching of Articles 29(d), 30, and 31 of the law.
However, the Respondent disputed the allegations that the Petitioner’s fundamental rights and freedoms were violated in 1976 or any time the Petitioner served as a military commander for the Kenya Defense Forces.
The respondent further claimed that all suspected military personnel at the time of the failed coup were put through a court martial or summary disciplinary hearing before being dismissed or found guilty and given prison sentences.
A procedure that hasn’t been stated by the petitioner.
The claim made by the respondents is that the petitioner was arrested because the government at the time had a reasonable suspicion that he had been involved in the failed coup attempt on August 1st, 1982.
After a sober evaluation of both sides of the coin, Justice James Aaron Makau delivered a verdict on the 3rd of March 2017, a ruling that awarded the petitioner Sh 7,000,000 compensation for illegal detention and torture.
However according to Samuel Okumu’s lawyer, the government failed to pay the compensation and filed an appeal against the judgment by Justice James Aaron Makau.
