Shem Ogolla is a Mwakenya suspect who wins Sh1.5m as compensation for torture

By KURIAN MUSA

Nairobi, Kenya: A man accused of being a member of the Mwakenya movement has been awarded Sh1.5 million as compensation for torture and illegal confinement.

Shem Ogolla was arrested at his home in Kariobangi, Nairobi, on October 5th, 1986, blindfolded and taken to unknown location. “I award the petitioner the sum as general damages. The petitioner’s statements of facts were not challenged by the Attorney General,” ruled Justice Majanja.

 “In the cross-examination of the plaintiff nothing substantial came out that would sway this court’s mind to disbelieve the plaintiff and I therefore accept all the facts as set out to be true,” the judge said.

“The AG appeared in the proceedings but neither in pleadings nor in oral evidence did he answer to those facts raised, the court can only but take it that those facts are actually uncontested,” added the judge.

Justice Majanja ruled that Ogolla’s rights were violated following subjection to torture, cruel and degrading treatment while he was in police custody contrary to the law.

The AG had submitted that the application is a non-starter for want of full disclosure that it is fatally incompetent.

Ogolla told the court he was handcuffed, blindfolded and driven to Buruburu Police Station where he spent the night.

He recounted how was later taken to Nyayo House where he was locked in a water-logged cell and food. He was taken to the Nairobi Traffic Headquarters and thereafter blind folded and taken to court where he was charged with taking unlawful oath contrary to section 6(b) of the Penal Code.

In his administration say should be asked now.

Moi worried about what would happen if a new person took over in Tripoli and refuses to recognise the deal Kenya signed with Gaddafi.

 “Would Kenya go to war with Libya or go to the International Court? What do we do if Libya goes to war with another country while it controls our refinery? Does Kenya join that war? What happens when Libya’s enemies target our oil refinery because it is partly owned by Libya?”

CROSS HEAD

Those considerations, a former Moi administration official said, made the former President turn down Iran’s interest in the Kenya Refineries. Moi, the official said, insisted Iran’s participation in the refinery could only come as a grant and not shared ownership.

But Moi’s distrust for Libya is said to have remained even after the international community began to recognise Gaddafi in the late 1990s.

The former president strongly believed one could never tell what Libyans were up to.

So strong was this feeling that when the two states agreed to resume diplomatic ties towards the end of the Moi regime after over 20 years of no relations, the former president’s terms to Gaddafi were tough and clear.

Sources from the Moi era told The Saturday Standard that for Libya to re-open its embassy in Nairobi, Gaddafi had to agree to one condition by Moi.

The condition was a Kenyan intelligence official would be attached to the Libyans to monitor everything they did in Kenya.

The former President further directed intelligence officials that the officers monitoring Libyans in Nairobi would rotate every week.

A Kenyan ambassador said Moi never wanted to deal with the Libyans, “whether wrong or right.”

Kenya had cut diplomatic ties with Libya in 1987, with Moi accusing the Gaddafi and Museveni regimes of interfering in local affairs.

Restoring ties in 1999 never came easy either.

A Kenyan ambassador said Moi only allowed Libya to accredit its Ambassador in Dar es Salaam to also take care of Nairobi.

Full diplomatic relations were only restored after President Kibakvci took over in 2003.

Moi’s distaste for Gaddafi is said to have been a combination of personal pride, a sense of nationalism and political survival instinct.

Sources say he believed Gaddafi held sub-Saharan African leaders in low esteem, viewing them as people he could compromise easily.

That at a time the West viewed President Moi as one of the most important leaders in Africa.

Eight years after Moi left power, President Muammar Gaddafi is getting engrossed in Kenya’s political and economic life, alongside Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who Moi treated equally with caution.

In a complete shift, President Kibaki, who was Moi’s deputy in the days the former President had difficulties with Libya and Uganda, has embraced the two leaders wholeheartedly.

In the 1980s, Moi accused Gaddafi of harbouring expansionist and interventionist tendencies, which he thought.