This Is How Maraga and Supreme Court Will Rule Today

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The Supreme Court of Kenya is expected to make a ruling today to determine whether elections will go on or not.According to Lawyer Wahome Thuku,this is what is expected from Maraga:

“Yesterday morning, three “civil society” personalities filed a petition at the Supreme Court to stop tomorrows repeat election. Since then, the petition has raised debate within legal groups, media and high political offices and created high anxiety. I took time to read it keenly and to discuss it with a number of colleagues. Several issues have come up during the discussions.

The petition was certified as urgent by the Registrar of the SC with an order to be heard today “even if being a public holiday”. Why the ” even if” was inserted in the the order is curious.

The petitioners only named the IEBC and its Chairman as 1st and 2nd Respondents, ignoring the 7 candidates who have a stake in the matter. This was conveniently to save themselves the trouble of having to serve them in person with the papers. The registrar however directed the petitioners to serve all the candidates by 2pm yesterday.

The candidates would have up to 8.30 am today (18 hours including 12 hours of night) to hire lawyers, sit down, read the petition, research and file responses (max 10 pages) in Court and serve other parties and be ready to be heard at 10am and decided on. Such a requirement only happens in movies. There can never be any clearer travesty of justice than that.

One of the most clear observation shared by many advocates is that the petition was not drafted by the persons named therein. The industry, the language and details are clearly a trademark of a certain judicial officer. That is only a feeling. However the drafter took time to research on the facts and the law and to present a detailed petition at the last minute on issues that arose almost three weeks ago.
Such an ambush is total injustice and one only hopes unbiased bench will point it out. Will the candidates be allowed to claim (as the should) that they couldn’t get time to research and respond and need more time. It happens always in any fair hearing. This is not a petition timed by regulations, so, how will the judges treat that complaint? Or is this one matter that must be decided today regardless of the prejudice and injustices to the respondents and candidates? Have we reached there?
And what if they will not have been served with the papers, then what?

Those who know our constitution, it doesn’t expressly provide for the filing of such a petition at the supreme court. It only provides for challenging of an already conducted presidential election. The SC however expanded its jurisdiction in 2012 to determine all disputes arising in a presidential election (before, during and after voting). That is the jurisdiction the petitioners are banking on. Will judges uphold?

THIS is a petition I expected in court when Raila Odinga “withdrew” from the election. Filing it at this hour was malicious to say the least. Secondly, NASA was very instrumental in the resignation of commissioners Akombe. My colleagues are question how NASA should benefit from its own machinations.

I must credit the manner in which NASA has been doing their court business. They are not filing blind cases without first getting the opinion of the very persons who will determine them. Its like getting a guaranteed buyer first before growing tomatoes. That is how farming is done, starting from the ending, and that is what Jubilee is missing.

As the judges sit today they must think of the political power games being played before them and not strictly the law. One piece of truth they must consider is that after deciding the August petition in favour of Raila, he decided to pull out without any justifiable reason just to plunge the country into a crisis. They cant close their eyes to the social and economic harm that this has caused the country. And that will only happen if they have no personal interests in these matters”