Five women seeking compensation for torture and police brutality meted on them during the 1992 “Mothers of Political Prisoners” demonstrations in Nairobi have suffered a blow after the Court of Appeal threw out their petition.

A three-man bench upheld a High Court decision that dismissed the petition.

They said that when the courts began compensating political prisoners whose cases were genuine, clear and proven, the floodgates appear to have been opened.

In their evidence, they said they had engaged in peaceful demonstrations agitating for the release of 53 political prisoners at Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, and later at the All Saints Cathedral,

The court heard that they were brutally kicked, punched slapped and whipped by and slapped, beaten with by the police and General Service Unit officers.

In their appeal, the petitioners claimed that the trial court had rejected their case because it was filed many years after the the incident.