‘I want Sh280m for illegal detention,’Mzee Kimani says.

Nairobi's first city clerk is demanding more than Sh 200 million from the State on grounds that he was wrongfully detained in 1968.

In the case filed before High Court judge Isaac lenaola, Lewis Kimani, 87, claimed he was detained at Shimo La Tewa for days without a valid reason.

Mr Kimani argued that he was also subjected to dehumanising treatment by the police.

Through his lawyer Muturi Kigano, Kimani said he was detained due to his affiliation to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's Kenya People's Union, but asserted that even the old Constitution guaranteed Kenyans freedom of association.

"The then Attorney General did not have any documents explaining why I was detained at Shimo La Tewa," he argued.

Kimani claimed that he was arrested in Tororo, Uganda, where he had fled to for fear that he would be assassinated.

He said that he was held briefly at Kilimani and Embakasi police stations before being transferred to Shimo La Tewa Prison.

"I was shuttled between various locations and held in inhumane conditions," he claimed.

He said that although he was a trained lawyer, the then Government ensured that he did not get employment for joining a party deemed to have been opposed to former President Jomo Kenyatta's government.

When taken to task why he had taken long to seek compensation, he told Justice Lenaola that it could have been an exercise in futility as the justice system in previous the regimes was faulty.

"My appointment as KPU's administrative secretary is what led to my arrest. I was arrested on March 7 and 8 1968 by around 20 officers from the then Uganda Research Bureau who were accompanied by one Aggrey Okwiri from the Kenya Special Branch," he testified.

Hearing of of the case will resume on October 21. Political detainees who have been compensated for wrongful detention include Gitobu Imanyara (Sh15 million) and Koigi Wamwere (Sh12 million).