Over 10,000 Luos are seeking a referendum to enable the community leave Kenya and form its own country over alleged discrimination by the Kenyan government.

In a case filed at the Milimani High Court, petitioners from Luo community led by Ojijo Ogillo Mark Parscal, want the court to issue orders compelling the government through Attorney General Justin Muturi to cause a referendum to be held to enable Luos leave Kenya.

“That the court orders the respondent (the Attorney General) to cause a referendum to be held for Luos to leave the state of Kenya and become their own state,” one of the orders they seek reads.

Through Ojijo, the over 10,000 petitioners seek a referendum on various grounds including that the Attorney General (the respondent) has shown consistent acts of discrimination, profiling, harassment, torture and oppression of the Luos.

“We, the Luos of Kenya, guided by Article 20 of the African on Human and People’s Right (as adopted in 1981 in Nairobi, Kenya, and entered into force in 1986), hereby file a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples Right, in Banjul, The Gambia; The United Nations Human Rights office; the East African Court; and the High Court of Kenya; to grant us our human rights of self-determination of forming our own state; as provided for in Article 20 (1) and 20 (2),” the court papers read in parts.