Feature - Journalist paralysed by police torture appeals for presidential intervention

A Kenyan journalist attacked and maimed by state security agents in 1991, is appealing for the personal intervention of President Mwai Kibaki to expedite his case for justice, following a 12-year deadlock. Wallace Gichere, a photojournalist, was paralysed from the waist down after police officers, who raided his fourth-floor flat in the capital, Nairobi, on the night of 4 October 1991, threw him out of his bedroom window. His perceived crime had been his role in promoting international awareness of the civil and political repression being perpetrated under the regime of the then president, Daniel arap Moi, by "leaking" information to the foreign press and the human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, he told IRIN. Confined to a wheel chair and unable to earn a living, Gichere's life has since been one of desperation, sustained by occasional donations from journalist colleagues and well wishers. In an open later to Kibaki, he has asked for adequate compensation to offset his debts and enable him to support himself and his family. "I am sick and weak," the letter says. "I am appealing to you to kindly come to my aid and have this matter resolved." Gichere says he needs money to offset his enormous legal and medical fees. His hospital bills alone amounted to more than US $100,000. He also owes about $77,000 to other creditors, in addition to house rent arrears running into thousands of dollars. His electricity and water supplies have been disconnected due to unpaid bills. "Creditors have been coming to my house daily demanding to be paid their dues, as word has it that I have been compensated," he told IRIN on Thursday. Gichere, who is still ill and in need of constant medication, is also seeking compensation for loss of income for the last 13 years. His struggle for justice has become a long and complicated process. His attackers were never arrested and his efforts to seek redress from the former government received no acknowledgement, he told IRIN. The National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government, which came to power in December 2002, had accepted liability for his condition, and offered him $122,700 in compensation, but nothing had come of it so far, he said. Moreover, the sum suggested by the government was too meagre to offset his huge hospital and legal expenses incurred over the years, he added. "After the Narc government took over last year, we had high hopes, but unfortunately the changes were minimal, not what we expected." In November last year, he staged a hunger strike outside the attorney-general's offices in Nairobi, only agreeing to end it 15 days later, following the intervention of the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ). The Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) has tried to intervene in the case, but has encountered problems with the parties over the amount of money to be paid out as compensation, according to Lawrence Mute, one of its members. Although the KNHRC had powers and mechanisms to expedite the case, it could only do so if both parties were willing to negotiate, he said. Currently it could not continue with the procedure, because the government had decided to pull out of the negotiations when the issue was raised in parliament recently. "The problem is Gichere is asking for a figure which is far higher than the government is willing to pay," Mute told IRIN. As a result, he said, the case had reached a difficult stage, which might leave the two sides with no choice but to await a court decision. "I believe the government's position is that if he is not ready to take the offer, then he should go to court to determine the level of the quantum he should receive," Mute said. "Most likely, the courts will provide a lesser figure," he added. The KUJ, which has been supporting Gichere financially, has tried to mediate between the parties and even to persuade Gichere to take the government offer, Ezekiel Mutua, the KUJ secretary-general, told IRIN on Thursday. "We were trying to facilitate the faster adjudication of the matter to spare the government the embarrassment. But how can you negotiate if the offer the government is talking about has not even been put down in writing?" Mutua queried. "The government is insensitive to a matter which is clearly easy to adjudicate and finalise. He [Gichere] is a cripple. We can't sustain him forever, because we don't have the means," he said. "When we organise transport for him to come to town, the appointments [with government officials] are not even being honoured," Mutua added.