Koigi's mother revives Sh50m torture pay fight at top court

The mother of former assistant minister and Nakuru politician Koigi wa Wamwere has filed a case at the Supreme Court seeking Sh50 million compensation for Nyayo-era torture after failing to get a favourable decision in the lower courts.

The Court of Appeal last month upheld the April 2016 decision of Justice Isaac Lenaola, then a High Court judge, dismissing the suit filed by Monicah Wangu Wamwere, 89, seeking damages.

Justice Lenaola, now Supreme Court judge, wondered why it took the elderly woman more than 20 years to file the case. Appeal court judges Mohamed Warsame, Patrick Kiage and Agnes Murgor in their judgement upholding the High Court decision termed the petition "no more than a speculative afterthought.”

Mrs Wamwere had said the delay was because she did not have faith in the Judiciary under the old Constitution and especially under the Moi regime.

But the judges noted that since 2003 after end of the Moi era, many aggrieved persons had approached the courts seeking redress, citing the case filed by her famous son Koigi Wamwere in 200.

Through lawyer Gitau Mwara, Mrs Wamwere said the judges gave a narrow and restrictive technical reasons to dismiss her case.

She has raised 30 grounds, among them that most judges have ruled that there is no limitation of time in the Bill of Rights, especially where persons have sought redress for historical injustices.