Court orders Kihara to refile PEV victims case submission
Bernice Mbugua @BerniceMuhindi
Attorney General Kihara Kariuki has been asked by the High Court to re-file submissions in a case filed by survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the 2007 post-election violence.
Justice Weldon Korir issued the directive yesterday after learning that the submissions which were first filed in October 2018 were not in the court file.
The judge also said that in less than a month’s time, he will set a judgment date for the petition which was filed in 2013.
“The case will be mentioned on June 8 for fixing of judgment date once I confirm that all submissions have been re-filed,” he said.
Assault survivors
In the suit, eight survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the post-election violence moved to court in 2013 accusing the government of failing to protect them during the violence that wracked Kenya between December 2007 and February 2008.
Four organisations are also petitioners in this case: Coalition on Violence against Women; Physicians for Human Rights; the Independent Medical and Legal Unit; and the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists.
The Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police and the Ministry of Health have been named as respondents in the suit.
The petitioners presented 16 witnesses. The last witness for the petitioners to testify was Betty Murungi, a women’s rights and sexual violence expert, who testified on August 30, 2016.
The petitioners accuse the police of refusing to document and investigate claims of SGBV, leading to obstruction and miscarriage of justice.
They further claim that the government denied emergency medical services to the victims at the time, and failed to provide necessary care and compensation to address their suffering and harm.
Want compensation
They are seeking compensation, including psycho-social, medical, and legal assistance to the survivors.
They say the government failed them by refusing to mount prompt, independent, impartial, effective, and public investigations of unlawful acts by the police.
They also claim the government failed to redress the serious human rights violations committed by police during the post-election violence.
