#Kenya's government has finally begun
paying out compensation to victims of police brutality during protests, but the process is already clouded by serious questions over transparency, institutional confusion, and the very real fear that ghost names may have infiltrated the list of genuine victims.#Payments Have Started But Who Is Getting the Money?
On June 23, 2026, the Panel of Experts on Compensation of Victims of Human Rights Violations formally announced the start of the reparation programme. In the first phase, 348 verified victims have received a combined total of Ksh448.7 million, with 115 families of the deceased each receiving Ksh3 million, totalling Ksh345 million.
The compensation programme does not only cover the June 2024 Gen Z protests. The payouts cover victims of violent protests from the 2017 and 2022 post-election periods, the 2023 demonstrations, the 2024 Finance Bill protests, and the 2025 Saba Saba protests. KNCHR has documented 1,815 claims and received another 1,022 cases from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
Yet despite the announcement, many families say they know nothing about money reaching them. Edith Wanjiku, whose 19-year-old son Ibrahim Kamau was killed during the protests, told the Associated Press on June 25, 2026 that her family has yet to receive any compensation despite having submitted documents to the Kenya Human Rights Commission. She questioned the criteria being used, saying that out of ten families whose children were shot near Parliament, only two had reportedly been paid.
#The Institutional Confusion: Which Panel Is Actually In Charge?
To understand the current chaos, one must trace the troubled institutional history of this process.
On September 8, 2025, Justice Dennis Magare of the Kerugoya High Court issued conservatory orders halting the government's compensation plan, suspending a gazette notice dated August 25 that had appointed an 18-member panel of experts to oversee the payouts. The court also suspended President Ruto's August 6 proclamation establishing the reparations framework.
The Kerugoya High Court subsequently ruled, in a judgment delivered on December 4, 2025, that the President lacked constitutional authority to establish a body to verify, investigate, and compensate victims of demonstrations and public protests, holding that this mandate rests exclusively with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), an independent constitutional commission.
President Ruto then implemented the High Court judgment through Special Gazette Notice No. 259, dated January 5, 2026, operationalising the decision on compensation of victims. [CapitalFM](https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2026/01/makau-mutua-appeal-protest-reparations-compliance/) Prof. Makau Mutua's panel was restructured into an advisory role, with KNCHR taking the legal lead. However, Amnesty International Kenya's Irungu Houghton subsequently resigned from the panel, citing that Ruto's January 5 extension of the panel's mandate contravened the High Court ruling that declared KNCHR as the principal organ responsible for ensuring compliance with international human rights obligations.
In short: the Mutua-led panel was legally halted, restructured, partially emptied by resignations, and then continued to operate in an advisory capacity while KNCHR took formal charge of verification and disbursement. The panel that is now announcing payments is operating under this restructured, post-court-ruling arrangement.
#The Ghost Victim Fear: A Legitimate Public Concern
With nearly Ksh2 billion of public money being disbursed in a process that has already been contested in multiple courts, the question of ghost victims — fabricated or ineligible names infiltrating the genuine list — is not mere rumour. It is a risk the public has every right to raise loudly.
Victims speaking through the Mathare Social Justice Centre say there is little public information on who qualified for the payouts, what criteria were used for selection, how much each beneficiary will receive, and the specific timeline for disbursement. They are demanding the immediate publication of all beneficiaries and greater transparency in the process.
Survivors are insisting that KNCHR should make public the beneficiaries' list for transparency and accountability and to curb corruption. The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has also faulted the verification process, accusing KNCHR of relying too heavily on information from State agencies, the very agencies whose officers are accused of the violations.
These concerns are not unfounded. COIN-10 Vice Chairperson Javas Bigambo issued a warning as early as March 16, 2026, that politicians must be kept away from the compensation process to ensure victims receive closure. "The commission and the committee are requesting that the compensation process should not be infiltrated by politicians," Bigambo said.
#The Data Protection Shield: Transparency Tool or Corruption Cover?
When public pressure mounted to publish the full names of compensated victims, authorities cited data protection laws. KNCHR Director Cyrus Maweu said that victims' personal information had been submitted with the expectation that it would stay confidential, while defending the decision to withhold the identities of individuals slated for compensation.
Prof. Makau Mutua's panel announced that the names of all compensated victims would only be published periodically in the Kenya Gazette, guided by the provisions of the Data Protection Act, 2019. Though, this on the other hand could be a tool to cover the Ghost names inserted in the genuine victims list.
This argument rings hollow for many Kenyans. When protesters were shot in broad daylight on the streets of Nairobi, their names, faces, and deaths were plastered across media platforms without their consent. When IPOA and KNCHR collected statements from survivors, no one invoked data protection as a barrier. Why, then, does the Data Protection Act suddenly become relevant only at the moment when the public wants to verify whether the right people are being paid?
The call for transparency does not require publishing the monetary amounts received by each individual. A practical middle ground exists: publish the names and identification numbers of compensated victims in all 47 County Headquarters so that communities — who knew the dead and the injured — can verify that real people are being paid. This would serve accountability without unnecessarily exposing sensitive personal financial information.
#Inadequate Compensation, No Accountability
Even among those who trust that they will eventually be paid, the amounts are being described as a political gesture rather than justice. Gillian Munyao, mother of Rex Masai who was among the first to die in the June 2024 protests, described the compensation offer as "peanuts," telling AFP: "He's covering up the wrongs that he did. He just wants us to shut up because of the cash that he's giving us. I'm not seeing justice anywhere... why pay us without giving the culprit?"
Victims have argued that the government's proposed figures fail to account for the lifelong impact of the violence. Their proposed alternative framework calls for Ksh5 million for loss of life, Ksh4 million for survivors of sexual violence, and Ksh3 million for victims of enforced disappearance who were later found. [Nairobi Wire](https://nairobiwire.com/2026/04/gen-z-protest-compensation-kenya-dispute-ruto.html)
Meanwhile, accountability for perpetrators remains almost nonexistent. According to IPOA, of the 62 deaths documented during the 2024 protests, only three cases have reached court. No officer has been convicted. [Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/25/two-years-on-kenyan-families-still-seek-justice-after-gen-z-protests)
#What Must Happen Now
The compensation process is not yet a scam but the conditions for it to become one are dangerously present. A Ksh2 billion fund, a politically turbulent verification process, an institution (KNCHR) that was forced into the role after a legal battle, and now a data protection wall blocking public scrutiny: this is a perfect environment for corruption to flourish.
The responsible authorities must act immediately on three fronts. First, publish the list of compensated victims even without amounts in all 47 County headquarters and online portals, so that communities can confirm that genuine victims are being paid and not ghost claimants. Second, ensure that every family that submitted documentation is contacted directly and not left to learn of the programme from television, as has been reported. Third, criminal accountability for police officers responsible for the killings must proceed in parallel — compensation without prosecution is not justice; it is a hush fund.
As Faith Odhiambo, former President of the Law Society of Kenya, argued plainly: "Families need prosecutions, not payoffs."
The blood that was shed on June 25, 2024, and in the months that followed, deserves more than a bank transfer shrouded in secrecy. Kenya's protest victims deserve both money and truth — and the public deserves to know that both are reaching the right hands.
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