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Prof Mutua's panel of experts want court to lift order blocking its mandate
Prof Makau Mutua (left), Vice-Chair Faith Odhiambo(right) and panel member Irungu Houghton (center) during the swearing-in of the Victims Compensation Panel at the KICC in Nairobi on September September 4, 2025.
The panel of experts on compensation of victims of demonstrations and public protests has gone to court seeking to lift an order blocking it from doing its job.
In an urgent petition filed before the High Court in Kerugoya, the panel says the order granted on September 8, undermines the broader public interest in securing justice, accountability, and redress for victims of protest-related violence.
Further, the panel says it has a strict lifespan of 120 days within which to discharge its mandate. “Thus, unless the Motion to vacate is heard urgently during the recess, it will be nugatory. The Panel’s 120-day lifespan would have expired by effluxion of time. The urgency is self-evident,” said the panel.
Justice Kizito Magare stopped the panel from embarking on its mandate, following a petition filed by a Nairobi-based lawyer, Mr Levi Munyeri, who claims that the process is unlawful.
However, lawyer Dudley Ochiel said Mr Munyeri deliberately failed to inform the judge of two other cases, which had been filed in Nairobi that sought similar orders. The cases in Nairobi were filed by lawyer Lempaa Suyianka and Dr Magare Gikenyi.
The panel wants the court to lift the suspension order or in the alternative, convert the mention date fixed for October 6, 2025 into a hearing, so that the parties can argue the case.
“The impugned orders, if left to stand, will directly frustrate the mandate of the 1st to 18th Interested Parties as members of the Panel, including its responsibility to address the plight of Kenyans affected by protests dating back to 2017 and the more recent Gen Z demonstrations of June 2025 which resulted in deaths, injuries, and widespread human rights violations,” Mr Ochiel said.
He said to allow the orders to stand would unjustly paralyse its mandate, deny long-overdue justice to victims, and defeat the very purpose for which it was established.
Justice Magare had further suspended the implementation of the Gazette Notice dated August 25, 2025 that appointed the panel, whose mandate included to establish a framework for the reparations and compensation of victims of demonstrations, public protests and riots.
Further, the court restrained the government from implementing, enforcing or in any manner acting upon President William Ruto’s proclamation establishing a framework for compensation of victims of demonstrations and public protests.
President Ruto appointed the 18-member panel chaired by Prof Makau Mutua and Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo, as the vice chairperson.
The panel will address legal obligations and the social, economic, and cultural impacts borne by victims and their families— aimed at restoring dignity, promoting reconciliation, and supporting long-term societal healing.
It will also design and operationalise a framework to verify, categorise, and compensate eligible victims.
The petition alleges duplication of duties on grounds that the mandate assigned to the panel is part of the duties performed by other State institutions, such as the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
The petitioners argue it is contradictory for the executive to compensate victims when independent institutions can handle such redress.
