Thirty five lawyers have moved to court to bar pending eviction of families from the 60,000 families from Mau Forest water tower.
However, the lawyers state that the process goes against the rights of locals.
Led by South Rift Law Society of Kenya chairman Kipngetich Korir and city-based advocates Moses Kurgat and Hillary Sigei, they want the process to be postponed until their case is heard and detetmined.
“Residents and particularly the young, innocent and vulnerable children will be permanently affected and their lives destroyed should the respondents continue with phase two of the eviction,” states the lawyers’ petition.
Environment and Lands Court Judge Silas Munyao has directed that the case be heard in Kitale on Wednesday next week.
Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony has another case against the government initiative. Through lawyer Peter Wanyama, the governor has a pending case at the East African Court of Justice and Environment and the Lands Court at the Narok High Court.
Their petition follows an announcement by Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya on Wednesday that evictions will proceed as planned. He started the process by shutting down 15 schools in the affected area.
“The community centres or whatever are being called schools, are actually not registered because they had no land documents since they are situated in a government gazetted forest — MAU. They are not manned by Teachers Service Commission," the Regional Commissioner.