A foreign pastor has been awarded Ksh400,000 after a court determined that he was wrongly arrested and detained in Kenya in 2019.
The pastor from Ireland who spent 23 days in custody had sought Ksh4 million in damages following the wrongful arrest.
After a civil court awarded him the cash, he termed it as a joke considering the amount of time he spent in courtrooms seeking justice.
He pointed out the case took six months and during that time he spent a fortune in food and accommodations and as such, the civil court should have awarded him more.
While he has begrudgingly accepted the compensation, he is now demanding an official apology from President William Ruto's administration.
“I just wanted my name cleared and after five years I was awarded money for a malicious prosecution,” he stated.
The wrongful arrest emanated from a claim that he was engaging in pastoral activities in Kenya as well as being employed by a local church in Siaya.
This was contrary to his 90-day visa which did not allow him to engage in income-generating activities without a work permit.
Once arrested, the pastors in the church he was accused ran away and did not make a single appearance in court to defend him.
“It was me and Jesus in that court but I was found not guilty in a criminal trial so I sued the Kenyan government in a civil suit for wrongful imprisonment,” he remarked.
The court delivering its ruling remarked that there was no concrete evidence of the pastor earning income from preaching in the Siaya-based church.
“In light of the aforementioned, this court finds that the prosecution has not demonstrated that the accused person breached the terms and condition of his visa by being in employment,” it was ruled.
