The Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) suffered a major blow after a Kisumu Court ruled that it violated the rights of the Nubian community by forcefully evicting them from their property.
In the ruling delivered by Environment and Lands Court Judge Anthony Ombwayo on Friday, the court established that KRC carried out the evictions without giving an alternative shelter.
The judge also directed that the victims be compensated, after he found out that the petitioners’ right of protection from all forms of violence and inhuman treatment had been abused.
The court ruled that the forceful eviction of the minority group compromised their right to full protection from discrimination among other rights.
The group had filed a petition after they were evicted from their homes on February 5, 2021 by Kenya Railways at night, an incident that left over 3,000 individuals homeless and a trail of destruction of property which they claimed they had occupied for over 80 years.
Justice Ombwayo ruled that the violent evictions without according the residents an alternative accommodation was a violation of their rights.
“The violent eviction of the petitioners without an alternative shelter was unconstitutional, contravening the national values and principles of governance,” read the judgment.
The court also found out that the demolition of the petitioners’ homes without any prior written warning or court order was an infringement of their right to dignity.
KRC enforced the evictions to pave the way for the revitalisation of the 216km Nakuru-Kisumu meter gauge railway line.
The petitioners sued the Kenya Railways, National Treasury, Lands, Interior Cabinet secretaries, National Land Commission, Kisumu County government and the Attorney General.
In the petition, the complainants argued that they had lived on the land since 1937 without any eviction threats until March 2020.
They also claimed that no written eviction notice had been issued to them prior to the demolitions. They sought orders to have their eviction declared a violation of their fundamental human rights.
The petitioners further sought orders to have their eviction without provision of an alternative relocation site a violation of their right.
Kenya railways argued that the land had been surveyed and reserved as theirs in an order issued in 1986.
They said that the land had not been surrendered to the government of Kenya for allocation to any party.
