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2017 KENYA ELECTIONS

Catholic Bishops urge peace, ask NASA to seek legal redress

“Now that elections are complete and the IEBC has declared the results for presidential and other elective positions, we take note with a lot of concerns the grievances raised on the whole electoral process. We therefore, implore and urge any aggrieved parties to use legal means as provided in the Constitution to seek redress”/HILARY MWENDA

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 12 – Catholic Bishops are now asking the National Super Alliance (NASA) to take any grieves over the 2017 General Election to the Supreme Court for determination.

Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops Vice-Chairman Reverend John Oballa Owaa appealed to the country’s political leaders and aspirants to conduct themselves peacefully and to ensure that whatever they do is in the interest of Kenyans and promotes peace and unity.

“Now that elections are complete and the IEBC has declared the results for presidential and other elective positions, we take note with a lot of concerns the grievances raised on the whole electoral process. We therefore, implore and urge any aggrieved parties to use legal means as provided in the Constitution to seek redress.”

“We have opened our doors and we will be of great assistance… mediation is to listen and to understand the issues, you process it out and you lead the individual. In this case, the politicians to see the answers ahead of them because at the end of the day the goal is to have a peaceful harmonious, one indivisible country,” he added.

For the presidential poll, any petitioner is expected to file a petition within seven days after declaration of the presidential results and has two days to serve the respondents thereafter.

The respondents have four days to file submissions before a pre-trial hearing which comes 8 days after filing of the petition.

 

Immediately after the pre-trial conference, a hearing is then set to begin and a determination delivered within fourteen days of filing of the petition.

The new rules gazetted and circulated in June have those challenging the presidential election paying a security of Sh1 million and a further Sh500,000 filing fee, non-refundable.

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Speaking a day after the electoral commission declared the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Bishops urged politicians to deists from inflammatory and irresponsible utterances.

NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga rejected the results and urged NASA supporters to do as such saying the elections were marred with massive irregularities.

The assertion by Odinga is premised on the allegations that the IEBC server was hacked to manipulate the outcome in favour of President Kenyatta.

The official results by IEBC showed President Kenyatta got 8.2 million votes and Odinga 6.7 million votes.

After a declaration of the presidential results, aggrieved parties can petition the Supreme Court as set out in Article 140 of the Constitution.

Bishop Alfred Rotich and Mombasa Archbishop Martin Kivuva urged aggrieved parties to instead foster a unified nation by refraining from drumming up tribal and ethnic sentiments and called on Kenyans to resist and reject any form of incitement.

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