KENYA: Compensation talks underway for paralysed journalist

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

KENYA: Compensation talks underway for paralysed journalist

NAIROBI, 24 July (IRIN) - A paralysed Kenyan journalist is seeking
compensation from the Kenyan authorities following an incident in 1991 when
police threw him out of a fourth-floor window, the media watchdog Reporters
sans Frontieres (RSF) reported.

Wallace Gichere, the-then chief photographer of the government-owned 'Kenya
Times', was beaten and thrown out of the window by a group of 15 Special
Branch members who broke into his Nairobi flat to arrest him, RSF official
Jared Obuya told IRIN on Wednesday.

Gichere was accused of writing anti-government articles and sending
information on human rights abuses to the rights group, Amnesty
International.

Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako told Parliament on 17 July that the issue
of liability was not contested, but that the amount Gichere had requested in
compensation - over US $3 million - was "colossal" and "inordinately high",
the 'EastAfrican' weekly reported.

Therefore, he said, it might be difficult to reach an amicable settlement in
view of the wide disparity between the two sides.

"In the circumstances, the best course of action would be for the court to
assess damages," the newspaper reported Wako saying.

Jared Obuya told IRIN that negotiations between the two were ongoing, but
Wako had said he was only prepared to pay about US $125,000, while Gichere -
who has been paralysed from the waist down since the incident - was now
looking for at least US $500,000.

Wako's admission of liablity comes after Gichere was admitted to hospital on
15 July, unconscious from an eight-day hunger strike.

"He has been waiting for his money, he hasn't received anything over ten
years later so he said he had nothing to lose," RSF reported.

Gichere had now ended his strike, Obuya confirmed, and was in a "much better
condition".

The Special Branch officers originally reported that Gichere had jumped from
the bedroom window in his flat, in an effort to avoid the officers who tried
to arrest him. None of them has been arrested or charged to date, Matuma
Ruteere of the Kenya Human Rights Commission confirmed to IRIN.

The case was brought to the attention of the Kenyan government by a Kenyan
non-governmental organisation, People Against Torture, and the
government-run Standing Committee on Human Rights, which recommended that
compensation be awarded to Gichere.

[ENDS]

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