Court orders Kenyan government to pay $36,000 each to four women subjected to sexual assault in Kenya’s post-2007 electoral violence

KENYA: Four women who have been subjected to sexual assault in the violence that followed Kenya’s disrupted 2007 election are set to receive compensation after judge rules that the country has violated their rights when it failed to investigate their cases.

On Thursday, December 10, the court ordered the government you pay $36,000 (£27,000) to each one of the four ladies that were assaulted.

Recorded that more than 1,000 people died and 5000,000 fled from their homes in the inter_ethnic violence that began in late December 2007 following Kenya’s election.

This violence broke out after the then-president Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the 2007 election. His rival Raila Odinga said tge poll was rigged.

Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the current Kenyan president supported Mr. Kibaki and his deputy William Ruto who backed Me Odinga_were charged by the international criminal court with crimes against humanity after they were accused of fueling the violence.

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Agitators believed Thursday’s judgment could be precedent for hundreds of others who were abused in the wake of the election.

Rights advocacy group, Physicians for Human Rights, helped the girls with their legal cases saying it hoped to “secure justice for the survivors”.

It said that the ruling was the “first time in Kenya that post-election sexual violence had been legitimately recognized”.

“Three of the four to receive compensation were assaulted by members of the security forces and so in effect, their rights to life and security were infringed by the state itself, “Justice Weldon Korir said in the ruling.

Even the fourth woman was attacked by an ordinary citizen, but the judge ruled that the state had violated her rights when the police failed to investigate her complaint. According to Justice Korir, he said that there are four other people involved in the case, he also added that since their case hasn’t been reported to the police, the state could not be found at fault.

This day remains an evergreen memory and historic day for survivors of the rampant sexual violence perpetrated in the aftermath of the 2007 election, who have waited for accountability for far too long, said Naitore Nyamu, was of the Kenya office of Physicians for Human rights.

Already, the court decision will reverberate widely for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence in Kenya and around the world.