A former member of parliament whose son was gruesomely murdered lost a court battle regarding his son's death.
The family of Ex-Gatundu North legislator Patrick Muiruri lost an appeal seeking the award of Ksh15.8 million by the High Court as compensation for the death of their son, James Ng’ang’a Kariuki, Daily Nation reports.
Kariuki was shot dead by a police officer in 2009, Dickson Munene, during a brawl in a club in Westlands, Nairobi. The officers were later arrested and charged with murder.
During his appeal, the former lawmaker had informed the court that the amount awarded as compensation was too little.
Hight Court judge Joseph Sergon had ordered the government to pay the family a total of Ksh15,857,730, comprising Ksh100,000 for pain and suffering, Ksh200,000 for loss of expectation of life and Ksh12 million for loss of dependency.
The family was also awarded special damages of Ksh1,557,730 and exemplary damages of Ksh2,000,000.
This is after they argued that they had dully invested in their son's education and emotional support and love in order to see him successfully through his education, which had been destroyed through the careless shooting by a police officer.
Kariuki's kin also pinpointed that his income would have been approximately Ksh700,000 per month and would have risen significantly in the course of his career.
The deceased father also produced a letter from Nigel D. White, professor of public international law at the University of Nottingham, who had supervised Kariuki’s PhD programme.
At appeal, Justices Daniel Musinga, Gatembu Kairu and Sankale ole Kantai said there was no doubt that Kariuki, aged 29 at the time of death, had an illustrious career before him.
However, the judges argued that besides the letter from Prof White giving a general view of Kariuki and his future prospects had he continued teaching until retirement, there was no confirmation that Sheffield International University employed him.
“We have considered the material available before the judge and have reached the same conclusion the deceased was not employed at the time of death,” affirmed the judges.
Past reports by The Standard also indicated that Munene, a former police constable will soon be walking free after he killed James Ng'ang'a.
Munene was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of killing, James, however the court, considered the 10 years had served in Kamiti prison where he was described as a model prisoner.
