This is the final judgment of a case initially brought by the Mitu-Bell Welfare Society in September 2011, seeking declaratory relief and compensation for the eviction of over 15,000 people from land adjacent to the Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The Supreme Court overturned the 2016 judgment of the Court of Appeal and found in favor of displaced families.
The Supreme Court ordered the respondents to compensate the more than 3,000 families forcefully evicted from the land near the Wilson airport in September 2011. They remitted the case to the trial court to determine appropriate remedies in line with the Supreme Court judgment and the pleadings which the parties had placed before the trial court.
The significance of this case is that it recognized the non-exhaustive list of remedies which a trial court can use to vindicate violation of human rights; international law which Kenya has ratified and its assisting documents such as UN Guidelines, General Comments or even foreign case law can be applied by Kenyan courts as long as it is consistent with the Constitution and that the right to dignity and housing for those living in informal settlements must be protected, especially where they reside on public land for several years as a result of poverty and other circumstances.
Katiba Institute lawyers were assisting counsel for the Petitioners. The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa represented by the Kenyan Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN) was admitted as an amicus curiae in the case at the Supreme Court.
