Who actually pays when the state breaks the law?
You do.
When courts award compensation for unlawful police action โ injuries to peaceful protesters, excessive force, or reckless use of tear gas โ the money comes from the public purse.
When parliamentarians or senior officials make decisions later ruled unlawful or abusive, and courts impose multi-million-dollar remedies (tens of millions in recent cases), taxpayers again foot the bill.
Citizens who never authorised the conduct, never elected the specific decision, and had no power to prevent it are forced to subsidise its consequences. Power is exercised by a few; the financial and moral cost is socialised across everyone else.
This is not accountability. It is the systematic externalisation of risk. Officials and institutions enjoy the upside of authority while the downside is transferred to people who bear no responsibility for the failure.
The result is predictable: weakened deterrence, repeated misconduct, and growing public cynicism about the rule of law itself.
Those who wield state power โ police officers, public servants, and elected representatives โ should face meaningful personal financial liability when courts find their actions unlawful, abusive, or grossly negligent.
Until decision-makers carry real personal consequences, โpublic accountabilityโ remains a polite fiction. The stateโs errors are paid for by the governed; its power is protected from its own agents.The social contract cannot survive when one side holds all the authority and none of the financial risk.Should those entrusted with public power be required to answer with their own resources when they violate the law?
I feel there should be a law protecting us from being blocked by the leaders we voted for. Like, why should I vote for you, then when I question you, you block me?
That's not leadership; that's avoiding accountability!
This day reminds us of Boniface Kariuki, a young man whose life was cut short while trying to earn an honest living. His story remains a painful reminder of the cost many ordinary citizens have paid.