by Nancy Gitonga
@PeopleDailyKe
Milimani Law Courts will be closed for the next 11 days starting tomorrow to pave way for the hearing of the presidential election petition, the Judiciary has announced.
This is after the apex court shifted the hearing of the petitions challenging the outcome of the presidential election to the Milimani Law Courts owing to space constraints at Supreme Court building.
The judges of the apex court will not use the building to hear the cases because of lack of adequate space given the Covid-19 pandemic regulations.
In a notice released on Tuesday, the Judiciary directed that during the 11-day period, urgent matters will be dealt with on the online platforms.
“All advocates, prosecuting counsels, clients, national police service, the prison service take note that Milimani Chief Magistrate Courts and Traffic Court will not be physically accessible due to the hearing of the Presidential Election Petitions as from August 26 to September 5, 2022,” the statement says.
“Take further notice that all fresh pleas and certificate of urgency will be filed and handled at City Court. All matters scheduled for this period will be mentioned virtually for directions by the respective courts during the period,” reads the notice by the Judiciary.
Tight security
This means that during the period, the court station is out of bounds for members of the public, as only the parties in the presidential petitions together with their advocates, clerks, Judiciary staff and the media will be allowed in.
Security has been beefed up at the court station with deployment of police officers drawn from all units including the General Service Unit (GSU), Administration Police, Special Weapons And Tactics Teams (SWAT) and other special units of the National Police Service.
The notice came a day after several petitions challenging Deputy President William Ruto’s victory were filed by Azimio la Umoja-One party candidate Raila Odinga and his running Martha Karua, activists Okiya Omtatah and Khelef Khalifa, David Kairuki Ngari, Youth Advocacy Africa (YAA), John Njoroge Kamau, Juliah Chege and gospel singer-cum-politician Rueben Kigame.
This sets the stage for a major legal duel at the topmost court.
Eight of the nine petitions seek the invalidation of Ruto’s election and a fresh presidential election in accordance with the Constitution and the Elections Act, among other orders from the Supreme Court.
Counter suit
The ninth petition by Chama Cha Kazi party leader Moses Kuria and outgoing Mbeere South MP Geoffrey King’ang’i however seek the dismissal of the suit lodged by Raila and Karua over alleged election malpractices.
Kuria and King’ang’i claim that Raila, through his Chief Agents, led by Saitabao Ole Kanchory and others caused violence at the National Tallying Centre at the Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi.
The petitions will be determined by the seven judges, led by Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court Martha Koome.
Others are Justices Philomena Mwilu (Deputy Chief Justice), Njoki Ndung’u, Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala and Isaac Lenaola.
As per the Supreme Court presidential election rules, 2017, the seven judges have up to September 5 to determine validity of Ruto’s election as Kenyan’s fifth president.
Timelines released by Justice Koome recently indicaate that Ruto and other respondents such as Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and its commissioners are supposed to file their responses to the nine petitions by Saturday August 26.
A day has been set aside for those who wish to be enjoined in the petitions and another day for preliminary hearings.
The seven Supreme Court judges will then hold a pre-trail conference on Tuesday next week in which the judges will issue guidelines on how the hearing will be conducted, the time for presentation and rebuttal, and the sitting arrangements. The hearing will commence immediately after the pre-trial conference, which could be done on the same day.
Sixty days
The judges have six days to hear and write the judgment. The entire presidential election petitions take 14 days from the filling date.
The decision of the court will be final. It could uphold the commission’s declaration which means that President-elect will be sworn in on September 12.
But it could also declare the commission’s announcement null, paving the way for fresh elections to be held 60 days after the nullification of the election results.
