David Murathe, Jubilee Party vice chair, described his 85-day detention at Nyayo House in Nairobi during the 1980s as a harrowing experience marked by water immersion, electric shocks, and physical brutality, according to a 2014 interview with K24 TV.
"They kept you in water for weeks," Murathe recalled. "My feet were like the underside of a snake, and they still ooze water today. They would make you sit on a seat with needles like a sewing machine, switching it on. Some colleagues became impotent, and many were thrown from the building's top floor." The Nyayo House complex, a symbol of state repression during President Daniel Moi's rule, was notorious for its torture chambers.
His activism began during his University of Nairobi studies in Economics and Political Science, where he organized student protests. In 1979, students staged their first riot over poor food conditions. Murathe later helped form the Kenya Socialist Alliance, a precursor to multi-party advocacy, but the group was dismantled after political leaders were arrested ahead of a 1982 coup attempt.
Detained in 1986 on charges of involvement with the underground Mwakenya movement, Murathe described being taken to Nyayo House without explanation. "They would take you into a lift that went to the top, where I suspected people were thrown to their deaths," he said. He endured 13 days in a cell without food, subjected to water torture from the 24th floor.
After a 15-month prison sentence at Kamiti and Shimo la Tewa, Murathe stated, "I was happy to go to prison rather than the torture chamber." Despite the trauma, he later joined Mwakenya and worked toward democratic reforms, eventually forgiving Moi for his role in the abuses.
