INVOLVING KITUO CHA SHERIA
1. Judgment on Prisoners Right to Vote, on June,23,2010.
The High Court of Kenya, Nairobi Law Courts through Judges Samuel N. Nukunya,Jamila Mohammed, Scholastica Omondi, Sankale Ole Kantai and Mburugu N. Kioga made the orders on June, 23, 2010 that Section 43 of the Constitution of Kenya does not in any way exclude inmates who are over 18 of sound mind and who have not committed an electoral offence from voting in a referendum, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission do gazette the prisons as polling stations and that they facilitate the registration of all eligible inmates within 21 days to enable those who wish to vote in a referendum to do so without any hindrance, the Attorney General and the necessary Authorities do facilitate the accessibility of prisons and the prisoners’ identification documents to enable the Interim Independent Electoral Commission to register those inmates who wish to do so in the time specified, For the avoidance of doubt, the orders made by the Court herein relate only to the referendum and that this being a public spirited petition for and on behalf of the inmates, this Court orders that the Petitioner and the Respondent do bear their own costs. Download the Judgment here: Prisoners-case-Judgment.
2. City Cotton Village Judgment (Delivered on October 2014).
Residents of City Cotton and Upendo Villagers were evicted from their land and their structures demolished by Moi Educational Centre in May 2013. However, it was a reprieve for them as the case in which Kituo Cha Sheria was a co-petitioner was ruled in their Favour. Lady justice Mumbi Ngugi awarded them Kshs 84M as compensation for the damages accrued during the forceful eviction. Download the Judgment here: City Cotton Judgment.
3. Muthurwa Judgment.
The case regards the purported evictions by Kenya railways where the Muthurwa residents were to be evicted from their land which they have lived for years. However, kituo successfully petitioned and the eviction order was suspended until proper modalities have been established. Click the link to download: Rulling on muthurwa case.
4. Refugee Judgment July 26th, 2013.
The judgment on refugee repatriation that Kituo cha Sheria played in quashing the ejection of Somali refugees from Kenya is still being felt (Kituo and 7 others had filed a petition to block the directive by the government to have all the refugees decamped to Kakuma and Daadab camps) and AU lauds the judiciary for the judgment delivered on 26 july last year in favour of urban refugees. Justice Majaja termed such evictions as unconstitutional. Click to download the judgment: PETITION 115 AND 19 OF 2013 JUDGMENT.
5. Security Laws (Amendment) Act Judgment, Monday,February,23,2015.
The High Court of Kenya delivered a judgment on the security laws that had been passed but challenged.The courts held that Section 48 of the security laws (Amendment) Act (which had introduced section 16A to the Refugee Act) that dealt with limiting the number of refugees in Kenya.They said that this violated the principle of non refoulement that is established under the 1951 convention that Kenya is a party to. Generally the judgment held that limiting the numbers of refugees was unconstitutional. However the judgment upheld part of the act which limited the movements of refugees. This would therefore mean that for refugees to leave the designated areas where they live, they would be required to have a permission slip from the refugee camp officer.
Their other reason for not allowing the limit was because that from other state practice other states had not set a limit for the number of refugees. Secondly the state had failed to demonstrate how they would deal with the extra number of refugees who were not in the 150,000 caption. The State also did not expressly give the criteria for selecting the 150,000 refugees.
Click to download the judgment: Security Laws (Amendment) Act Judgment.
6. Judgment on Closure of Daadab Refugee Camp and DRA, on February, 9, 2017.
The Judgment of Petition 227/2016 – Kenya National Human Rights Commission and Kituo Cha Sheria vs AG & 3 Others; The Constitutional and Human Right Division of the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi ruled that the Kenyan government must not close the Daadab refugee Camp.
Justice John M. Mativo declared the repatriation of the refugees a violation of Articles 2(5) and 2(6) of the Constitution of Kenya and Kenya’s international obligations. The Judgment also declared the resolution to disband the Department of Refugee Affairs ultra vires. Dadaab Closure Judgment, February, 2017
7. Judgment on Curfew Order Enforcement (Petition 120 of 2020-COVID 025), on April, 17, 2020.
Nairobi Const. Pet 120 of 2020 Law Society Of Kenya V Attorney General & 8 Others was a case filed by the LSK challenging the constitutionality of the Public Order (Curfew Order) 2020 for among other being unconstitutional. Kituo Cha Sheria was enjoined as the 4th Interested Party. KITUO took great exception to the police use of unreasonable force by the police. KITUO in its affidavit before court stated that the police officers enforced the curfew order in the most un-proportionate and brutal manner. We supported the brutality by reference to media reports. We further argued police brutality was a clear demonstration of criminalising the COVID 19 pandemic rather than treating it is a public health concern. On Friday, the 17th April 2020, Justice Korir delivered a favourable judgment making the following orders:
A declaration that the 1st Respondent, National Police Service unreasonable use of force in enforcing the Public Order (Curfew Order) 2020 is unconstitutional.
An order of mandamus compelling the 2nd Respondent, Ministry of Health to include advocates and the 3rd Interested Party, IPOA in the list of those exempted from the Public Order.
Curfew Order Judgment, April, 2020
8. Judgment of the evicted Kibos Nubian Community
The Environment and Land Court in Kisumu has ruled that the forceful eviction of 3,500 residents of Kibos Settlement Scheme without re-settlement or compensation was unlawful.
Judge Antony Ombwayo delivered the ruling in the case in which Kituo Cha Sheria represented the petitioners.
The ruling states that any forceful eviction and or demolition without relocation is illegal and violates the rights of the petitioners to property and that the petitioners are entitled to the property or compensation before relocation. The 3,500 Kibos residents and mostly of Nubian descent were left homeless after the Kenya Railway Corporation forcefuly evicted them from the Kibos settlement.