President William Ruto has personally apologised to the family of Rex Masai, The Eastleigh Voice reported. Masai was killed during anti-government protests in Nairobi in June 2024. Prof Makau Mutua delivered the apology on Thursday. He chairs the Panel of Experts on Compensation of Victims of Protests and Riots. The panel visited Masai's mother, known as Mama Rex Masai, at her home in Kayole.
In a post on X after the visit, the panel said it had conveyed both the President's personal apology and the State's apology for the family's loss. Representatives of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) joined the visit. The panel said the visit reaffirmed the importance of justice, healing, national reconciliation and the ongoing compensation process.
According to The Eastleigh Voice, the panel did not say whether the family has received money under the State's compensation programme. A similar apology was issued to Nigel Oduor Otieno in Mathare. Otieno was injured during the 2023 cost-of-living protests.
Masai died during the 2024 protests against the Finance Bill. His death became a symbol of the dangers protesters face. It also showed how hard it is to hold police accountable for alleged abuses. The killing fuelled public anger and louder calls for justice for victims of violence at demonstrations.
A month after the killing, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it had struggled to identify who fired the fatal shot. The available CCTV footage did not clearly show the shooter. The office asked the public for information. The uncertainty over the shooter's identity added to public demands for answers.
An inquest into Masai's death closed last month, more than two years after the shooting. It closed after testimony from a forensic expert, identified as Mutua, who had examined CCTV footage presented by IPOA. He told the court that the one-minute-and-15-second clip, stored on a flash disk, remained in its original form. He said he had found no sign of technical or intentional alteration, including insertion, deletion or splicing of video content.