Widow awarded Sh4m over extra-judicial killings

Kenya: The High Court has awarded a widow Sh4 million compensation for losing her husband and son to trigger-happy police officers.

Joyce Nyanchoma Mokaya's case on the tragic events of November 23, 2011, has put police in the spotlight for extra-judicial executions and planting of false evidence.

High Court Judge Isaac Lenaola on Friday ordered the State to pay the money to her after police killed her husband Ibrahim Ondego and her 14-year-old son Joseph Nyabari.

The two officers, who were both attached to Muthangari Police Station, were named as Dewrock Kithome and Simon Kikwai. The judge said the two were excessive and unreasonable in the use of force.

"I agree and will grant Sh2 million as compensation and as a global award for each of the deceased person," Lenaola said.

In the case filed by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and Release Political Prisoners Trust, the court ruled that the shooting by the police officers was a violation and denial of their freedom and security of the person provided under Articles 27(1) and 29(c) and (f) of the Constitution.

Justice Lenaola noted that it was in violation of their right to life, citing that the two were harmless when their lives were cruelly ended.

In a case that resonates with past claims of police brutality, the judge said they two posed no threat and the shooting was too cruel, inhuman and degrading.

He said it offends Article 29 of the Constitution as read alongside Article 16(1) of the Convention against Torture.

The mother of three had led a simple, but happy life with her husband in Nairobi's Kawangware where she sold vegetables.

As she listened to the ruling delivered by a Nairobi court in a Constitutional case, a wave of emotions swept over her and she broke into tears.

On the fateful day, her son had offered to help his father sell greens. By 3am, Ondego, 46, and Nyabari, 14,  left the house only to be stopped by two policemen a few metres down the road.

The policemen ordered Ondego and his son to sit on the ground and they obliged. But without any warning, the officers opened fire on Ondego. When his teenage son protested, he too was silenced.

According to court records, the policemen then planted two pangas and a gun next to the deceased. They then took pictures of the bodies and later called for a pick-up to ferry the bodies to the mortuary. They then left, but not before washing away the blood that trickled from the scene of crime.

What followed was a surreal experience for the surviving member of the family.

"Startled by the sound of gunshots just a few minutes after his father and brother had left the house, Isaac went outside and the first thing he saw were his shoes, which his younger brother had earlier borrowed," says Mokaya.