Court declines to freeze Ruto's protests victims compensation panel

The High Court in Nairobi has declined to stop the panel appointed by President William Ruto to look into compensation of persons who are victims of protests.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi instead ordered lawyer Suyianka Lempaa to serve the court papers on the President, the Attorney General, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, and Prof. Makau Mutua, the constitutional affairs advisor to the President.

In this case, Lempaa argued that the appointment and the framework for compensation were created outside the Victims Protection Act 2014, hence, illegal.

At the same time, he said that the law provides that there should be a victims protection board and which ought to have a chairperson who is appointed by the Cabinet Secretary.

According to him, the President has no powers to appoint or incur taxpayers’ money for an excise that is outside the law.

Dr Ruto appointed Makau as the head of the panel, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President, Faith Odhiambo, as the vice chair.

In addition, he also picked Amnesty International-Kenya Executive Director, Irungu Houghton, former Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto, Dr John Olukuru, Rev Kennedy Barasa Simiyu, Naini Lankas, Dr Francis Muraya, Juliet Chepkemei, Pius Metto, Fatuma Kinsi Abass, and Raphael Anampiu.

In the meantime, Dr Duncan Ojwang, who declined the President’s nomination to the position of chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, has also been appointed in the 18-member panel. 

The panel will be supported by a technical team led by Richard Barno and Dr Duncan Ndeda, while Jerusah Mwathime Michael and Dr Raphael Ng’etich will serve as joint secretaries.

Ruto said that it will operate from the Kenyatta International Convention Centre and will be funded by the Exchequer.

However, in court, Suyianka said that the scope of their work is not clearly defined, nor was there any public participation on the establishment of a framework for compensation.

“There was no information provided to the public about the intention to establish a coordinating framework for the compensation of victims of protests and riots in the country. Views of the public were never sought about the need for or viability of the framework; and generally, there is no transparency in creation of or establishment of the framework,” argued Lempaa.

While Lempaa was before Justice Mugambi, Nakuru-based surgeon Gikenyi Magare and United Kingdom based Kenyan Eliud Matindi were before Justice Chacha Mwita over the same appointment.

According to them, the President overstepped his mandate as the issues he wants the panel to address can be sorted by KNCHR, ODPP, IG-NPS and IPOA, KNCHR, Victims protection agency(VPA), Judiciary (courts) National Cohesion and Integration Commission(NCIC).

“The president has not given the basis of the said action. The purported functions of the impugned Panel are already allocated to bodies established under the Constitution. There is no residual, discretionary powers that the President can use to establish the impugned Panel. The President has therefore acted outside the bounds of the Constitution, in its violation, including under Articles 1(1), 2(2), 10(2) and 129,” argued Gikenyi and Matindi.

They alleged that public funds will be lost if the panel is allowed to proceed with the work. According to there is no clarity on how much each will earn and where the money will come from.

“Other than the president, nobody knows the allowances and remuneration of the team members contrary to principles of transparency, accountability and good governance, article 10, 201, and 232(1)(e) of the constitution and its not known how the actual members will be selected to the panel  the since no merit and competition has been applied in selection to the so called panel, contrary to inter alia article 1,10,73,75 and 232 of the constitution,” they claimed.

 Lempaa’s case will be mentioned on October 22.