The three judges were sitting at the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi. Photo/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 15 – The High Court has directed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to publish the list of County Assembly nominees within a week.
It has also directed that the Commission set up a dispute resolution mechanism that will handle party disputes.
The ruling followed a petition filed by the National Gender and Equality Commission last month that resulted in a three-judge bench ordering IEBC not to gazette the list of persons nominated to the county assemblies until the matter is concluded.
The petitioners argued that the party lists did not take into account the constitutional guidelines and that it lacked public participation and therefore wanted to be allowed to scrutinise the list by the IEBC.
Justices Isaac Lenaola, David Majanja and Mumbi Ngugi directed the Commission to provide party lists used to nominate persons with special interests to the Association of Persons Living with Disabilities in Kenya (APDK) and the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC).
APDK lawyer Jotham Arwa sought conservatory orders to stop the swearing in of nominated county representatives which had been granted by Justice Isaac Lenaola.
In their petition, APDK and National Gender Commission also accused the IEBC of running away from their responsibility of controlling the political party list for the nominees.
The swearing-in of nominated county representatives was stopped last week after the gender Commission alleged that the nominations did not meet the constitutional rule that requires affirmative action to be applied on vulnerable groups.
The commission stated that party chiefs had dished out seats reserved for special groups to cronies and friends on personal, corrupt and political grounds without regard to the purposes for which they were created.
The NGEC argues that by allocating the seats to cronies, political parties violated the constitutional rights of women, disabled people, the youth, marginalised groups, minority and others whose interests are protected under the constitution.
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