Justice Nixon Sifuna of the High Court of Kenya was on Tuesday, July 4, awarded the 2022 Accountability in Action Award by the Independent Recourse Mechanism (IRM).
He was recognised for his efforts in representing more than 500 people affected by the activities of an international bank.
According to the journal Honoring two accountability champions by author Rabi Thapa published on the World Bank website, Sifuna ate meals with the people he was representing to experience their plight.
While serving as an environmental lawyer, Sifuna explained that it was important to him to first get to know the people he was representing well before proceeding with the case.
"When you are in training to be a lawyer, you are told that you should feel apart from your clients. But when you are doing public interest litigation, you have to feel that you are part of it. You have to be one of them," Sifuna stated.
The members Sifuna was representing opposed the Kapenguria-Makutano Towns Sewerage Project. They sought the help of a lawyer in the court battle.
He noted that the members were referred to him because of his passion for public interest and his environmental background.
Through Sifuna, the community filed a complaint with the IRM and spearheaded the case opposing the sewerage project.
Fortunately, IRM discovered that the bank in question was not in compliance with some aspects of its social and environmental policies, which contributed to the eventual relocation of the project.
Sifuna, who was honoured alongside Régis Mpawaneyo, the Director of the Roads Agency of Burundi, was lauded for his accountability, transparency, and fairness at work.
Meanwhile, Sifuna holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of the Witwatersrand Law School in Johannesburg, South Africa.
On the other hand, Mpawaneyo was honoured for resolving a dispute between parties to a separate complaint registered with the IRM concerning a road infrastructure project.
