Survivors of torture and abductions left out of protest victims compensation

The panel has maintained that victims, whose claims will pass the strict scrutiny process, will still get what the government has promised them. Brenda Wanga reports on the long wait.

It has been three weeks since President Ruto stood at State House and promised to heal the nation and compensate for violations of human rights by state agencies.

“Hakuna ata mmoja amepokea ata shillingi moja...Tunaona hii fidia ina fiche mingi sana,” says Longton Jamil.

Two phases of payments are being made into the process, and over five hundred families are receiving Ksh.674 million. Amongst those compensated are those who lost their kin, suffered injuries, and business losses, as well as those who suffered sexual violations in the protests. 

But conspicuously missing from that list are survivors of abductions and enforced disappearances.

While releasing the report, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) had indeed listed the categories eligible for compensation; third on that list was the freedom from torture category, with 135 set to receive a minimum of 2 million shillings plus medical expenses. 

Number six lists enforced disappearance with 35 people set to pocket a minimum of 1.5 million shillings plus medical expenses.

“This framework represents a major milestone in protecting the rights of those harmed during protests, advancing social reconciliation, providing redress for victims, and strengthening our democracy,” said President William Ruto.  

The payouts are ongoing, but families of the tortured and the disappeared have not made the list yet.

Professor Makau Mutua, who chairs the compensation panel, says no one has been locked out. He insists the process is deliberate, not selective.

“We are going to proceed with the claims; we cannot do each category at once. We are systematically going down the list of categories,” said Mutua.

Rights groups argue that excluding these categories, even temporarily, risks undermining the constitutional promise the framework was built on.

This is not the first time the government has pronounced itself on the issue of abductions and enforced disappearances.

Eighteen months ago, facing an earlier wave of disappearances, President Ruto said, “We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully.

But the strongest acknowledgement came in the KNCHR report that not only named the violations but also enumerated the victims.

Families say they are still waiting to see both promises kept, an end to the abductions, and justice for those who already survived them.

For now, the list keeps moving. The families of the tortured and disappeared say they are still not on it.