Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome has now been ordered to pay a doctor using his personal funds and not from the National Police Service (NPS) kitty.
In an order issued by Justice Jairus Ngaah late on Tuesday, April 16, IG Koome was directed to pay Dr Davji Atella who serves as Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU).
Justice Ngaah of the Milimani High Court indicated that the compensation is for personal damages. The court observed that the police violated Davji’s rights when they used unlawful force to disperse peaceful protests at Afya House on February 29, 2024.
During the incident, Davji was hit in the head with a teargas canister was recorded bleeding profusely. The incident sparked nation outrage.
“The Respondent, from his personal funds, pays Dr Davji Atela, compensation in the form of general damages (under Article 23 of the Constitution and section 7(1)(j) of the FAA) for violating his rights while using unlawful force, to disperse the peaceable and unarmed picket at Afya House, Nairobi on 29 February 2024,” the directive read in part.
“A costs order requiring the Respondent to pay, from his personal funds, the costs of this litigation, to deter his future attempts to suspend Articles 36, 37, and 41 of the Constitution or his use or authorisation of the use of unlawful force, to disperse peaceable and unarmed strikes, assemblies, protests, and pickets contrary to Articles 36, 37, and 41 of the Constitution,” it added.
Besides ordering him to compensate Davji, the Court barred him from blocking doctors’ protests which he termed a nuisance in a statement released on Sunday.
“Grant of leave to operate as stay restraining the Respondent, Japhet Koome Nchebere, the Inspector General of the National Police Service, or any officer subordinate to him, from enforcing the Inspector General’s decision of 14 April 2024 to suspend Articles 36, 37, and 41 of the Constitution by cancelling, disrupting, or interfering in any way with the medics’ right to strike, assemble, protest, or picket while peaceable and unarmed.”
