A lecturer was, on Wednesday, awarded KShs6 million for three-day illegal detention by the Moi regime.
Joseph Otieno, 78, was among three lecturers who had been detained by the regime on claims that they participated in the 1982 coup attempt.
The others were Edward Oyugi, 76, and Kamoji Wachira, 75, who were awarded KShs20 million each for illegal detention of two years.
During the detention in the three prisons, Kamiti, Shimo La Tewa and Hola prisons, the two were held in solitary confinement and were denied access to family or lawyers.
Otieno's case, however, was that of mistaken identity because, after his arrest, the police realised the next day that they had detained the wrong person.
Justice John Mativo ruled that after the detention, Otieno was left distraught and could not even secure a job in the country.
“Considering both the physical and mental suffering, the destroyed careers, emotional suffering caused by separation from family members and life-threatening health complications attributed to brutality, I will award them damages,” ruled Mativo.
Oyugi was accused of failing to reveal why they wanted to overthrow the government while prosecution claimed that Wachira used students in a plot to overthrow the state.
“The manner in which they were arrested, beaten, harassed, tortured, subjected to degrading treatment, held in degrading and inhumane conditions both at the police station and in detention, and the denial of food and medical care were all a blatant violation of the letter and spirit of Chapter Five of the retired Constitution,” continued the Judge.
The three filed the petition in 2015.
