Court dismisses suit seeking to block three firms from oil search in Turkana

Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and 0903658 BC Limited have been granted a go-ahead to continue with their prospecting projects in Turkana following a six-year legal battle with a local firm which was claiming rights to six northern Kenya oil blocs.

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Kitale, has dismissed a suit filed by Interstate Petroleum in which it sought to revoke prospecting licences of the three multinationals, granting them the greenlight to continue with their oil mining projects in the six blocs.

Justices Festus Azangalala, Gatembu Kairu and Agnes Murgor have dismissed a suit Interstate filed seeking prospecting licences for the oil blocs, arguing that the local firm’s demands had already been addressed in a separate case.

Interstate in 2010 filed a suit staking a claim to licences for the six oil blocs but lost when the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled that it was not entitled to the permits despite having discovered the massive oil deposits in Turkana.

The local firm then filed a fresh suit in 2012 to revoke the licenses granted to Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and 0903658 BC Limited. The three multinationals unsuccessfully challenged the second suit, before asking the Court of Appeal to intervene.

The Court of Appeal judges held that the matters in Interstate’s second suit had not only been addressed in the first suit, but were an attempt to reopen a determined suit.

Interstate had appealed alongside businessmen Edward Kings Onyancha and Monena Kengara.

“In our judgment the subsequent judicial review application was not only barred by the doctrine of res judicata, but was also an abuse of the process of the court. The application for judicial review by the Interstate, Mr Onyancha and Mr Kengara is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” the Appellate Court judges ruled.