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By Journalists For Justice
Hearings in a case filed by eight survivors of police rape, gang-rape and forcible male circumcision by civilians during the post-2007 election violence resume at the High Court in Nairobi today.
Several expert witnesses have taken the stand. Today former executive director of Coalition on Violence Against Women, Saida Ali, will take the witness stand.
The eight survivors, with support from the Coalition on Violence Against Women, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit, the Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists, and Physicians for Human Rights, filed the petition in February 2013.
The eight survivors – six women and two men – have sued the Attorney General, the police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Minister for Health, among others for failing to prevent the attacks on them, or subsequently investigating and punishing the offenders or offering treatment to victims.
They have been supported by the Coalition on Violence Against Women as well as 11 other civil society organisations. Other survivors of the violence who are not party to the case are expected in court in a show of solidarity. Willis Otieno is their lawyer.
The last hearing was in May, 2016.
Judge Isaac Lenaola, who heads the Constitution and Human Rights Division of the High Court, has been presiding over the case.
