The High Court has found Principal Secretary for Defence, Dr Patrick Mariru, in contempt of court for failing to pay Ksh 134.7 million in compensation to ten former Kenya Air Force officers who were detained after the 1982 coup attempt.
Justice J.M. Chigiti ordered Mariru to appear for sentencing on April 29, 2025, after rejecting the Defence Ministry's argument that "budgetary constraints" and "austerity measures" had prevented the payment of the court-ordered compensation.
The case originated from a 2013 High Court ruling that awarded the former officers Ksh 55 million in damages for violations of their fundamental rights during their detention between August 1 and 4, 1982. The amount has since accrued interest.
According to the ten ex-soldiers, they were subjected to untold torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by officers of the Kenya Army who arrested them at gunpoint from their marriage quarters.
"We were stripped naked in public, were made to walk on our knees on concrete floors, whipped, kicked around, bludgeoned all over our bodies, and moved into custody in military trucks whilst naked and in full view of the public," sergeant David Gitau Njau narrated to court.
Despite multiple court orders, including a 2018 Order of Mandamus, Senate directives, and official certificates of payment, the Ministry of Defence has not settled the judgment debt. In 2019, the Senate's Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations directed the ministry to pay within 60 days, but this directive was also not followed.
Sergeant Gitau recounted how they were detained at Kamiti Maximum Prison without charges in 1982 and released in 1983. The group has pursued legal action for payment since the original judgment in 2013.
The Principal Secretary, on the other hand, argued that the satisfaction of decrees and judgments is considered expenditure by Parliament and, as a result, must be justified in law and provided for in government expenditure.
He stated that the Ministry of Defence had not received any allocation to settle the current claim due to the austerity measures imposed by the government and that he could only be accountable for the funds allocated to the ministry.
"Since there was no allocation from Parliament to settle the outstanding claim, it would be manifestly unjust for the court to hold me in contempt of court when I neither control nor determine government funding," he told the court.
In his ruling, Justice Chigiti stated that "austerity measures cannot amount to any justice if they yield no fruits to decree holders" and that such extensive delay "cannot be said to be reasonable in the eyes of any reasonable person and amounts to a denial of justice."
If Dr Mariru fails to appear for sentencing in April, the court has authorised his arrest by either military police at the Department of Defence headquarters in Hurlingham, Nairobi, or by the Inspector General of Police.
