For Njoroge Muigai, a former Kenya Air Force (KAF) officer, the events of Sunday, August 1, 1982, are unforgettable in his life as the actions by anti-government coup planners also ended his career.

Muigai says the coup attempt by disgruntled soldiers from the Kenya Air Force remains one of Kenya’s darkest days.

He revealed that the failed coup to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi’s government happened at night when he was at the Eastleigh Air Base after having returned from a birthday celebration with a fellow officer [who later died in detention].

Muigai recalled that an Air raid siren rang indicating that there was an attack from external forces.

“Our standard operating procedures demanded us to get armed quickly after the air raid siren went off. So, we hurriedly went to the armoury to arm ourselves but little did we know that there was a hatched plan to overthrow the government,” he said.

Coup masterminds

Before they got wind of the scheme to dethrone Moi, the masterminds of the coup, he said, were already donning uniforms belonging to high ranking officers and had already started deploying officers to Nairobi.

“We later learnt that the entire exercise was a coup and most of us retreated to the officers’ mess and piled our arms. We then hoisted a white flag indicating we were not at war with anyone,” he said.

Despite keeping away from the coup plotters, Muigai said that they were later rounded up by Army Officers and by 5pm they had been locked up at Kamiti Maximum Prison.

His hostile encounter with the government he served is similar to that of his colleagues who were accused of seizing the Eastleigh and Embakasi Air Bases before the masterminds of the coup led by Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and Sergeant Pancras Oteyo announced through the Voice of Kenya radio station in Nairobi that the military had overthrown the government.

According to Muigai, the rebel soldiers had a ploy to bomb the State House in Nairobi and the General Service Unit (GSU) headquarters in Nairobi. The lawlessness was spearheaded by Corporal Bramwel Injeni Njereman but his pilots from the Laikipia Airbase played tricks on him and failed to execute the orders. The coup would be later crushed by officers from the Kenya Army and GSU alongside the regular police officers who forced the rebel soldiers to flee.

Fled to Tanzania

Ochuka who claimed to rule the country for about six hours fled to Tanzania but was later extradited to the country where he was prosecuted and hanged in 1987.

It is the activities of that night that left huge marks in the lives of former KAF soldiers who claim they were not aware of any plans to overthrow the government.

Geroge Gathiaka Kiingati who joined the Kenya Air Force in 1974 claims that he was stationed in Wajir as an Air Defence Control Officer by the time the rebel soldiers were perpetrating the crime.

Kiingati who hails from Mutomo village in Gatundu South told journalists that they only learnt of the coup through the Voice of Germany radio noting that there were no mobile phones or landlines to communicate and Voice of Kenya (VoK) was not transmitting in Wajir.

In his statement, Kiingati said that all officers who were on duty were rounded up by Kenya Army officers, stripped naked and hauled to Nanyuki where they spent the night before they were taken to Eastleigh Air Base and then Kamiti Maximum Prison ahead of being hauled to Naivasha GK Prison.

“All this time we were being clobbered ruthlessly by the army officers and forced to admit taking part in the failed coup. I personally was in total darkness and despite my innocence, I went through untold suffering at the prison.

Dark cells

At Naivasha Prison we were locked in dark cells filled with dirty water and would be whipped inhumanely by army officers and later by prison officers. We were never arraigned in a court of law,” Kiingati, who was released eight months after without being charged, told journalists.

After he was unchained from the prison torture, Kiingati would later be dismissed from the force and warned never to set foot in any army barracks.

The hostility he underwent is similar to that of David Gitau, then a sergeant at Moi Air Base in Eastleigh who was at his married quarter’s house when the coup attempt was being executed.

Gitau said that upon rushing to the armory, he found all arms had been taken forcing him to retreat to the officers’ mess and spent the night there until the army officers stormed the base.

Joseph Mwangi who was by then a Captain at Embakasi Garrison said that he was at his home in Kilimani when the coup was being executed. He only got to know about the coup through his friends who heard it in the radio detailing that coup plotters had been arrested and the situation was calm.

Mwangi said he got arrested after all officers were ordered to report to their respective stations. He was grilled for three consecutive days before being taken to Naivasha GK Prison where he stayed for eight months before being released. The former soldiers later regrouped with an aim of seeking justice and they lodged their suit at the High Court of Kenya in 1995.

“We filed petitions in the High Court of Kenya where each and every petitioner stood in the dock, was cross examined by counsels from Attorney General’s Chamber and Special State Counsel from the Ministry of Defence,” Gitau said.

 The High Court, after a long legal tussle, on April 16, 2016 ruled that the soldiers be compensated for the torture meted on them while detained at Kamiti and Naivasha prisons.

The compensation runs into millions of shillings. They were awarded salary arrears based on the current salary appertaining to servicemen and officers in the Armed Forces in their respective ranks as set out in the documents filed by the Claimants from date of discharge to due date of retirement.

“The Claimants are awarded aggravated damages for wrongful imprisonment, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and violation of their right to fair hearing in the sum of each Sh1,000,000,” read part of the judgment.

 However, eight years after the Judgment was made, the former soldiers are yet to receive a dime. They said that they have exhausted all avenues of seeking justice including the courts and Parliament and are now appealing to President William Ruto to intervene and expedite their payment saying that most of them are ageing and are worried that they might pass on without getting their justice.

“Court orders have been issued, order of Mandamus issued, both houses of Parliament have approved our payment and the National Treasury has advised the Ministry of Defence to prioritize payment of court awards in their medium-term expenditure framework. We however haven’t gotten our justice,” Muigai said.

“From all foregoing, it is clear that we were never involved in planning or execution of the coup, in fact, it was KAF jet pilots who saved this country when they dropped heavy bombs in Mt Kenya forest which were intended to bomb important installations in Nairobi and its environs,” Muigai added.