AG Kariuki name features in Matiba sh1.5b pay circus – Weekly Citizen

Attorney General Kihara Kariuki is pushing for a multibillion compensation to the family of the late Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba behind the back of the lawyer who fought hard for the award of the compensation by the court with the intention of denying him his fees. Weekly Citizen has information.

Kihara is close to the Matiba family since the 1960s. The friendship started between the late AG’s father, Obadiah Kariuki, who was for a long time ACK Archbishop Mount Kenya Diocese and the late Matiba. Through that friendship, the children of the two patriachs were friends since their childhood.

Late Matiba

According to insiders, AG Kihara has been working behind the scenes at the AG chambers to influence the payments sidelining lawyer John Mburu from the payment. Mburu is demanding legal fees from the government that has now shot up to more than Sh265million inclusive of interest calculated at 14pc.

It is emerging that Mburu who was close to Matiba was instrumental in convincing his family to file a case against the state for compensation. At that time, Matiba’s faculties were severely impaired and hence the matter was discussed and agreed between lawyer Mburu and his family led by Matiba’s eldest child, Susan Mwamto, who held a power of attorney donated by him. Up to that time, the family neither felt that they could seek compensation for his unlawful detention and physical and financial damage, which arose from the detention, nor believed that such an action could yield fruitful results.

Rubai

According to documents filed in court, after being instructed by the family through Susan, Mburu filed the Matiba’s claim in court which was hotly contested by the government through the Attorney General. The government called three witnesses who were all cross examined by Mburu, while Matiba called two witnesses being Dan Gikonyo, a consultant physician and Mr Riungu, a financial analyst. The two parties also filed extensive afidavits and written submissions. After a battle that lasted four years, the court awarded Matiba damages amounting to Sh504 million. This award was increased to Sh978 million plus costs and interest after it was reviewed following a clerical error which was pointed out by Mburu. The total award comprised Sh945 million being financial loss, Sh18 million being medical expenses, and Sh15 million being damages for violation of Matiba’s fundamental rights and freedoms.

It has emerged that after judgment was reviewed the family started playing games behind their lawyer by holding secret meetings with Kihara their family friend and Attorney General, which were targeted at eventually paying the decretal sum to the family behind their lawyer’s back in order to swindle Mburu of his fees. These meetings went on until a secret agreement was reached for payment of the whole decretal sum in installments secretly to the family through the administrators of Matiba’s estate, who were his widow Edith Matiba, his daughter Susan Matiba, and his son Raymond Matiba. In accordance with the agreement, the attorney general paid Sh200 million to the administrators being the first installment behind Mburu’s back. Upon learning all these, Mburu rushed to court on May 9 2019 and obtained interim orders stopping further payments until his application seeking payment of his fees first, that is, before payment of the compensation to the estate, was heard and determined.

Gikonyo

After the order was made, the administrators rushed to court with an application seeking to be enjoined to the suit to enable them pursue their late father’s compensation. In his papers, Mburu argues that the application, which was made more than a month after the order stopping the payment was made, was intended to scuttle his application to enable the attorney general and the family to continue with their fraudulent enterprise involving his fees, noting that they had held negotiations behind his back, agreed on payment to the administrators behind his back and made the first payment under the agreement to the administrators behind his back while all along the administrators had not been, and had never been intended to be, joined to the case.

According to legal sources and papers filed in the case, the whole decretal sum was supposed to be paid to the advocate on record for the deceased to enable him recover his fees and thereafter pay the balance to the administrators. Instead the family sort to be paid the whole sum directly.

Of late, the courts are replete with cases of children and families of some otherwise respectable deceased people fighting viciously and publicly over the parent’s property.

The money was awarded to Matiba as compensation for his detention during the clamour for multiparty democracy.

It was awarded by Judge Isaac Lenaola, who noted that Matiba suffered a stroke on May 26 1991, but remained in detention without any medical care for almost a week.

The judge ruled that the state should foot only 20pc of the Sh4,726,332,042 Matiba had sought for the collapse of his businesses during his tribulations, holding that other factors such as the general decline of tourism and business as a whole during the period in question also contributed to the collapse.

Lenaola had noted in his ruling that real justice can be expensive and that the compensation is a lesson that no one should suffer such injustice.

Matiba died on April 15 2018, before the money was paid. There had been fights over the cash since then.

Matiba now goes into the history books as the petitioner who was awarded the highest amount by a court for torture.

His medical and business history was narrated by his personal doctor and close associates.

His doctor, Gikonyo, told the court that Matiba, who was then alive, was in his sunset days.

The judge was told that Matiba fell ill when he was in detention because of mistreatment and poor medical attention. Through his lawyer, the former Kiharu MP narrated that his problems with the government began in May 1990, when he and Charles Rubia called for amendment of the constitution to allow multiparty politics. The two were arrested and detained without trial on June 4 1990, three days before a rally they had called at Kamukunji in Nairobi on July 7 1990 and held until 1991. Even after their detention, a multitude of people convened at Kamukunji grounds in solidarity with them. The congregation turned chaotic after policemen decended on the peacefully assembled crowd with tear gas canisters, which they lobbed on them while firing live ammunition, leading to the death of scores of innocent people. Other pro-democracy leaders were also detained.

Matiba suffered a serious stroke on May 26 1991, but remained in Kamiti Maximum Prison without medication for a week until he was released on June 4 1991.

By then, a head scan had confirmed he was bleeding in his brain and required urgent blockage of his arteries.

“His medical condition could have been managed by prompt treatment, but he was held in detention for too long despite his failing health,” testified Gikonyo before the High Court as he was led by Mburu.

Raila and Matiba

Under further questioning by Mburu, the physician further informed the court that due to unnecessary delay, the politician, who prior to his incarceration was an active man, suffered permanent disability that confined him to a wheelchair.

According to Gikonyo’s testimony, not even the best hospital in England, where he was attended to by a team of reputable neurosurgeons could bring Matiba back to his normal life as he had already suffered severe brain damage.

To buttress his case for damages, Matiba, through his lawyer, Mburu said he spent more than Sh18 million on his treatment and continued to endure poor health.

He also argued that his once thriving business empire collapsed after his detention.

After the evidence of torture and inhuman treatment on Matiba was laid bare, Justice Lenaola awarded him Sh504 million. But following an erroneous calculation, the amount was later enhanced to Sh978 million plus costs and interest. The figure is the highest court award ever paid to a Moi-era torture victim. According to court papers, the sum currently due on the principal award exceeds Sh1.5 billion due to interest