Compensation talks underway for paralysed journalist

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.