File image on Police IG Japhet Koome
The High Court has directed the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome to pay the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Attelah using his personal funds.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Justice Jairus Ngaah said the police violated Davji’s rights when they used unlawful force to disperse peaceful protests at Afya House on February 29, 2024.
The KMPDU SG was hit by a teargas canister on the head during the incident and was rushed to hospital for medical attention after bleeding profusely.
“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,” Justice Ngaah directed.
The Judge ordered an investigation on the Capitol Hill Police Station OCPD and other officers involved in injuring Atela and other medics during the February 29 protests.
According to Justice Ngaah, superior officers will be held liable for issuing unconstitutional orders and directives to officers under their command to use unlawful force on striking doctors.
The Milimani Law Court judge also barred the police from blocking doctors’ protests after IG Koome termed the industrial action a nuisance.
“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,” Ngaah added.
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