* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Between January and July 2017, the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) received several emails from individuals (the Complainants) complaining about the implementation of the compensatory measures related to the forced evictions that had taken place in 2015 in the village of Kwa Jomvu Madafuni, in an area that is designated for road construction as part of the Regional Mombasa Port Access Road project in Kenya.
The Complainants questioned the adequacy of the received compensation and for some the lack of compensation. The Complainants also alleged that they had not been properly considered, informed and consulted during the valuation and compensation process that followed the forced evictions.
The initial assessment phase concluded with a proposal to proceed with a problem-solving approach facilitated by the EIB-CM. The proposal was accepted by the Complainants and the project promoter. The EIB-CM put in place a mediation team, composed of two mediation officers of the EIB-CM and one local mediator. The preparation phase for the mediation started with the first formal mediation meeting taking place in March 2018. The EIB-CM received additional complaints following this first mediation meeting and the mediation process was extended to process all complaints received by different grievance mechanisms (financier’s and promoter’s). The final number of complaints being dealt with reached approximately 350. A final Settlement Agreement was signed in August 2018 and the Mediation Report was published by the EIB-CM in November 2018.
The Settlement Agreement identified the following measures and actions to be undertaken by the parties:
- Set up of a clinic process to evaluate all the individual complaints, whereby the Promoter engaged to implement the results of the clinic process;
- The mediation table issued recommendations on agreed best practices that should guide the parties on future discussions about the reinforcement of the local grievance redress mechanism (GRM);
- The mediation table summarised the CAP and RAP livelihood restoration measures and included some best practice recommended for use in the future if needed;
- The parties agreed to have a one-day session facilitated by the mediators to lay the foundations for future improvement of relationships between the different stakeholders of the project, including local authorities.
The agreed measures have been under implementation since 2018. The EIB-CM monitored the implementation of the above mentioned action points agreed in the Mediation Settlement Agreement and considers that all action points have been implemented, as described in more detail in the final monitoring report issued in May 2021.