No Settlement Without Justice Families Resist State Compensation Plan


By Jared Odhiambo

Families of young Kenyans who lost their lives during the Gen Z protests of 2024 have issued a powerful statement rejecting compensation as a substitute for justice. Speaking through a press release on Tuesday, the victims’ families declared that no amount of money could erase the bloodshed, the pain, or the broken lives caused by state violence.
Led by the taskforce chaired by Prof. Makau Mutua, the government recently announced a plan to compensate victims and their families. While welcoming the recognition of their suffering, the families emphasized that their understanding of justice is neither shallow nor negotiable.

“Compensation alone, without truth, acknowledgment, accountability, and reform, is nothing more than blood money,” the statement read. “No family will accept their loved one’s life being reduced to a cheque.”

The families outlined five pillars of justice that must be honored. First is acknowledgment of truth, where the state must openly admit that those killed were not criminals or terrorists but patriotic young Kenyans who stood for justice, freedom, and a better future. Second is a sincere apology, with the government expected to issue an unequivocal statement recognizing the pain caused and the blood spilled. Third is the demand for investigations and arrests, where all killer police officers and their commanders must face justice through transparent inquiries, arrests, and prosecutions. Fourth is compensation as solidarity, where financial support should only show solidarity with bereaved families facing hardship, never as a substitute to silence accountability. Finally, the families demand police reforms for non repetition, calling for deep and irreversible changes to ensure such tragedies never happen again.
The statement underscored that those killed during the protests were not enemies of Kenya but its very soul and conscience. “They were our children, our future. To diminish their sacrifice by reducing it to a financial settlement without justice would betray their memory,” the families stressed.

In a powerful conclusion, the families reiterated that truth, acknowledgment, accountability, and reform remain the only path to peace and dignity. “Money cannot heal a mother’s broken heart, cannot bring back a father’s son, cannot silence a child’s cry for their parent. Only justice can bring dignity to the dead and peace to the nation.”

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