Kenyan court awards 3.5 million shillings to man injured during protests — Nation Kenya
The High Court in Kisumu, Kenya, ruled that a victim of police shooting during a protest does not have to identify the officer who fired the shot in order to hold the police accountable. Judge Joe Omido awarded Kisumu resident Lucas Otieno Okuta 3.5 million shillings in compensation, Nation Kenya reports.
Injury during protests
On October 10, 2017, Okuta was walking to work when clashes between police and protesters following the election were taking place in the Kondele area of Kisumu County. He said that after hearing gunshots, he ran into a shop to hide, but felt pain in his pelvic area and fell.
The man said that he could neither stand nor walk or crawl and remained on the ground for several hours until he was picked up by an ambulance. He was taken to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu, where doctors removed a bullet from his pelvic area.
Okuta stated that he has had persistent difficulty walking and severe pain since the injury. According to him, he was unable to return to work as a mechanic and welder.
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Court findings
In 2022, Okuta filed a lawsuit against the Inspector General of Police, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, and the Attorney General. He claimed that officers of the National Police Service had unlawfully injured him and violated his constitutional rights.
The state asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, stressing that the claimant had not provided evidence directly linking the injury to a specific officer. Judge Omido noted that amid a fast-moving confrontation, the victim had no realistic opportunity to establish who exactly had opened fire.
The court also took into account reports of cases in which police officers concealed their faces during public demonstrations. The judge stressed that the use of firearms by police is not in itself unconstitutional, but it must be lawful, necessary and proportionate to the threat. The court found that Okuta had proven a violation of his constitutional rights through unlawful shooting and an ineffective investigation of his complaint at Kondele Police Station.
