David Odhiambo|Diaspora Times Political Analyst UK

Blood Before Bandages: Ruto’s Hollow Promise to Compensate Protest Victims “Like Amin and Pinochet before him, Ruto trades justice for coins, hoping the world mistakes payment for penance.”

President William Ruto’s announcement of a formal mechanism to compensate victims of demonstrations and riots, made through a presidential proclamation on August 8, 2025, drips with irony and hypocrisy. This is the same Head of State who presided over the darkest weeks of Kenya’s recent history—when Gen Z protesters were abducted, tortured, and killed under his watch. No amount of polished proclamations or bureaucratic frameworks can whitewash the blood on the government’s hands.

The presidential statement, couched in the grandeur of constitutional authority, declares the establishment of a coordinating framework for compensation, conveniently placed under the Executive Office of the President. But compensation without justice is a cruel joke. It is an insult to the mothers who buried their sons, the fathers still searching for disappeared daughters, and the countless Kenyans left with shattered bodies and livelihoods.

If the President were sincere, his first act would be to order the arrest and prosecution of those who orchestrated and executed the abductions and killings—whether they sit in security command posts, wear police uniforms, or lurk in shadowy state-sponsored hit squads. Until that happens, this proclamation is nothing more than a public relations stunt meant to appease international pressure, especially from Washington, where the Trump administration and American human rights watchdogs have been quietly documenting the regime’s brutality.

Kenya does not need compensation cheques signed by the same hand that authorized bullets and batons. It needs accountability. It needs truth. It needs justice before mercy. Anything less is a bandage on a gaping wound—a wound the President himself helped inflict.

“Blood money for silence.”

One of the closest parallels is Idi Amin in Uganda. After the 1972 massacres of political opponents and soldiers from the Acholi and Langi ethnic groups, Amin’s regime later offered financial “assistance” to some victims’ families — but only after international condemnation and the risk of sanctions. It wasn’t justice; it was hush money to neutralize outrage.

Another is Augusto Pinochet in Chile. After years of enforced disappearances and torture during his dictatorship, his government established “reparations” programs in the late 1980s, not out of remorse, but to soften his image ahead of a plebiscite and placate foreign governments pressing for accountability.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author in their capacity as a political analyst and human rights advocate./ Diaspora Times Editorial shares the same views as the author.