32. It is also submitted by the Complainants that they are not bound to exhaust local remedies as they were unduly prolonged by the Respondent State. They aver that the Respondent State delayed their access to justice by 16 years with the civil case alone taking 12 years and also took no steps to investigate, prosecute or punish anyone for the alleged violations. The Complainants site Association of Victims of Post Electoral Violence & INTERIGHTS v. Cameroon3 and Enga Mekongo Louis v. Cameroon4 where the Commission found that delays of 4 and 5 years respectively were undue prolongation. 33. Regarding Article 56(6), the Complainants relied on Luke Munyandu Tembani v. Angola5 to submit that the Commission has previously suggested the commencing of proceedings within six months to be a reasonable period. They argue that they exhausted local remedies on 23 July 2021 when the Kenyan High Court issued its written judgment in the Kenyan Civil Claim (or, alternatively, on 10 September 2021 when the deadline for filing grounds of appeal elapsed) and filed this Communication on 21 January 2022 which was within 6 months. 34. Finally, in accordance with Article 56(7) of the African Charter, the Complainants contend that the subject matter of the present Communication has not been submitted to, or settled by, any other regional or international court or tribunal. THE SUBMISSIONS OF THE RESPONDENT ON ADMISSIBILITY 35. The Respondent State did not submit observations on admissibility or merits of the Communication. The Secretariat notified the Respondent State of the need to submit observations on admissibility within 60 days of receiving those of the complainant on the 14th of October 2022. On the 11th of November 2022, the Secretariat once again wrote to the Government of the Republic of Kenya to reiterate that their observations were due for submission in under a month and highlighting that in the absence of the former, the Commission would have to adopt a default decision. It should be noted that the Respondent State did not respond to both of those Note Verbales. As highlighted in the aforementioned Note 3 Communication 272/03, 25 November 2009, para. 68. Communication 59/91, 22 March 1995, para. 67 5 Communication 409/1230 April 2014, para. 106 4 9