A plea to prevent the Supreme Court from announcing the outcome of a presidential election following a vote recount was denied by the High Court.
A portion of the legislation that permits the Supreme Court to proclaim the victor of a presidential election following a recount of the ballots cast was challenged as being unconstitutional in the petition.
Justice Hedwig Ong’undi said that she lacked jurisdiction because the High Court should not be telling the Supreme Court what to do or not do.
The Supreme Court has exclusive original jurisdiction to hear and decide cases involving the election of the President, according to Article 163 (3) (a) of the constitution.
The Supreme Court has exclusive original jurisdiction to hear and decide cases involving the election of the President, according to Article 163 (3) (a) of the constitution.
According to Ong’undi, the clause makes it plain that the Supreme Court, not the High Court, is the only court with the authority to hear cases involving the presidential election.
Ashford Koome Mbogo, Michael Ochieng, and Eric Githinji brought the lawsuit, arguing that the clause is unconstitutional and also violates the idea of the electoral agency’s independence.
They claimed that the aforementioned section is illegal to the degree that it seeks to grant authority to an election court, the IEBC, a petitioner, or any other person.
The court records stated, “We shall suffer grave injury if the supreme court proceeds to rule on such petitions without the benefit of a judicial interpretation of section 80 (4) (a) of the constitution.
To far, nine petitions contesting the declaration of William Ruto as president-elect have been filed at the Supreme Court by various parties, including Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua of Azimio.
Those being sued are scheduled to file their responses by Saturday after the petitions were submitted on Monday.
However, the three Kenyans assert that IEBC and Ruto will both be directly impacted by the election court’s ruling.
They have urged the court to rule that only the IEBC chairwoman has the authority to declare a candidate for president.
