By Dann Okoth
Seven international rights organisations have sought to be enjoined in a case challenging the eviction of a local community in North-Eastern by the Government.
In an application under the amici curiae (friend of the court), the organisations seek to offer expertise in a petition filed at the High Court by residents of Medina Location in Garissa, seeking to stop the Provincial Administration and county council from evicting them from their land.
The application by the organisations under the umbrella of The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights sets precedence and could go along way in defining how future petitions involving economic and social rights are handled by courts. Residents of Medina in Garissa County ponder their next move after they were evicted from their homes.[PHOTO: DANN OKOTH/STANDARD]
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a human rights organisation, which works to enforce economic, social and cultural rights through litigation.
Experts also see the development as a shot in the arm for minority and marginalised communities like the Endorois, who have sought justice beyond Kenyaâs jurisprudence boundaries.
The community went to African Commission on Human and Peoplesâ Rights in 2009 seeking to compel the Government to resettle in their ancestral land in the Lake Bogoria area taken away in the 1970s to create a game reserve.
Court orders
The organisations would bring many years of experience and expertise from dealing with landmark cases elsewhere in Africa and beyond.
They include the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, the Community Law Centre, Centre for Economic and Social Rights, the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation and the Social Rights Advocacy Centre.
Others are members of the International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Network Adjudication Working Group as well as Malcolm Langford, Co-Coordinator of the ESCR-Net Adjudication Working Group and Director of the Socio-Economic Rights Programme (Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo).
