Willis Otieno outlines steps that should be followed before compensating victims
By Mabonga Makhanu, September 8, 2025Politician and lawyer Willis Otieno has come out to lay down procedures that should be followed before the compensation of protest victims is carried out.
While speaking on Herman Manyora’s channel on Monday, September 8, 2025, he stated that although compensation of victims is essential, it should come last.
According to Willis, human life cannot be compensated, and no amount of money can be equated to life. In view of this, the first step should be truth-finding on the cause of death of the victims who are set to be compensated. The second step is accountability, which entails holding responsible the people who committed the atrocities, and then compensation should come last.
“Human life can’t be compensated; no amount of money can compensate life. The first step is truth finding, and the second step is accountability – holding those who committed the atrocities accountable,” Willis stated.
Willis Otieno expressed his reservations with the already set-up panel of experts tasked with looking into the compensation of protest victims, saying that nobody has an issue with the compensation itself, but many have a problem with the approach where the government wants to go straight into compensation while jumping the first two critical steps, terming it ‘conmanship’.
“The problem with William Ruto is that he wants to lift the third step over the first two; that is a corn mashup. If you don’t deal with accountability, there is no guarantee that in the future there will be no repeat” he added.
He went on to state that compensation is only meant to wipe the tears of the victims and console the souls of their families, but it cannot be a substitute for accountability.
Fred Okango’s clarification
Elsewhere, Fred Okango, a member of the Victim Compensation Panel, clarified that in addition to their core mandate of compensating victims, the committee is also tasked with recommending prosecutorial action against individuals found culpable of injustices inflicted on protest victims, should evidence emerge during their engagements.
He also stated that the panel is also required to suggest legislative reforms on institutions that are always on the forefront during protests
“Where evidence permits, after going through their work, they can recommend to constitutional institutions like IPOA and ODPP prosecution of those who have been found culpable of committing some of these atrocities,” Okango stated.