A very long wait for justice

Maj. Gen. (ret)
Peter M. Kariuki

The Court of Appeal of Kenya has set aside the 31-year-old court-martial conviction of Major General Peter M. Kariuki, former commander of the Kenya Air Force. He had been convicted of failing to prevent and suppress a mutiny in connection with a 1982 coup attempt. In addition to restoration of rank, benefits, honors, and decorations, he was awarded Sh37 million in damages. The Court of Appeal decision, which found that he had been denied the right to be tried by an impartial and independent court, is not yet on the court's website, but an earlier ruling of the High Court is available here. The Court of Appeal judges wrote that “[a] conviction arrived at on the back of egregious violations of the magnitude and scale we have found in this appeal is a danger not only to the appellant but to the society itself.” Gen. Kariuki had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment and spent a total of 1,982 days in pretrial detention and post-trial confinement. He began his fight for judicial review of his court-martial conviction in 2006.