Democratic Party of Kenya (DP) party leader Justin Muturi has raised concerns following reports indicating that Professor Makau Mutua’s Uwiano team has recognised only one fatality among the 157 cases recently approved for compensation.
In a statement on Monday November 9, 2026, Muturi noted that the figure raises serious questions about the credibility, integrity and transparency of the entire exercise.
“Kenyans deserve to know whether this is merely one approved case or an attempt to portray the deaths arising from protests as insignificant. Let nobody mistake the intelligence of Kenyans for forgetfulness,” read part of the statement.
The DP party leader added that if the figure is being advanced as an account of the deaths arising from protests, it amounts to an industrial-scale cover-up of documented human rights violations and risks turning the compensation process into a human rights laundering service, sanitising atrocities and diminishing the suffering of victims and their families.
He explained that KNCHR documented 60 deaths during the June July 2024 protests, with subsequent interim reporting recording at least 73.
“Human Rights Watch documented unlawful killings, disappearances and concealment of bodies, while Amnesty International independently documented the grave violations and deaths,” he stated.
“These institutions cannot simply be wished away. Kenyans witnessed young people shot in the streets, bodies collected, mortuaries calling families to collect their loved ones and leaders visiting mortuaries to view bullet-ridden bodies. These are documented realities, not political fiction,” he added.
Muturi emphasized that Professor Mutua and his team must explain how their findings reconcile with the independent investigations and reports of KNCHR, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
“How many people were killed? How many families have been registered, verified or excluded? What criteria were used to determine eligibility for compensation? Were hospital, mortuary, post-mortem and IPGA records examined?” Muturi wondered.
At the same time, the DP party leader demanded the immediate publication of the team’s methodology, complete findings and an independently verifiable reconciliation of all reported deaths.
“Compensation must never become an instrument for rewriting history, sanitising human rights violations or shielding perpetrators from accountability. Kenya already has the Victim Protection Act, 2014, which must be fully implemented,” he noted.
According to Muturi, compensation is not justice and reconciliation cannot be built on the erasure of human lives.
“Families deserve more than cheques, they deserve truth, justice and accountability. Every death must be accounted for, every disappearance investigated and every person responsible for unlawful killings held accountable in accordance with the law,” he concluded.
