NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 1 – The Secretariat in charge of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) has filed a case in court seeking to stop a case by lawyer Charles Kanjama on the legality of the signature verification process by the electoral commission.
The BBI petition was filed on Monday through lawyer Paul Mwangi who urged the court to dismiss Kanjama’s case so as to allow a five-judge bench to determine nine other constitutional applications filed earlier.
In the case, Kanjama has challenged the BBI signature verification process conducted by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and wants the court to quash the whole process for being unlawful.
“The honourable court be pleased to stay the instant proceedings pending the hearing and determination of Nairobi High Court petition E 282 of 2020, David Ndii and others vs Attorney General and others,” the BBI petition states in part.
The Secretariat argues that the orders sought by Kanjama are prejudicial to the process hence need for them to be enjoined.
Mwangi told the court that
the case should be suspended because it is similar to other matters that have been filed in court.
“The orders and subject matter of this suit are directly related to the orders sought in the other suits pending before the constitutional division of the national High Court challenging BBI,” reads court documents.
Mwangi has accused Kanjama of filing the case deliberately while being aware of the existence of other cases challenging the BBI process.
“It is in the interest of justice the court intervenes at this juncture to prevent abuse of the court process and avoid a scenario whereby courts competent, concurrent and equal jurisdiction are sitting to hear and determine similar issues and giving conflicting orders,” Mwangi said.
In his case, Kanjama argues that the BBI Signature verification process was illegal because the electoral commission does not maintain a register of voters’ signatures.
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