NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 3 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has lodged at appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the Court of Appeal on August 30 which established its quorum threshold at four.
The electoral agency, in a notice of appeal filed on Thursday, also asked the Supreme Court to interpret its mandate as set out in the Constitution on key issues including delimitation of constituency boundaries.
The appeal arose from a judgement on a petition against the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) constitutional review process in which both the Constitutional Court and Court of Appeal declared the bid to amend the Constitution under BBI null and void.
“The IEBC, being dissatisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal given on August 20 21 intends to appeal to the Supreme Court against such parts of the decision on constitutional composition of the commission, quorum and its mandate.” stated the notice.
Five of the seven appellate judges who heard the BBI appeal found that the statutory composition of the commission is seven members and anything less than that-only weakens the commission.
The judges also submitted that at the time of verifying signatures collected in support of the BBI drive, IEBC was not quorate.
Justice Fatuma Sichale who differed however said that the commission was constitutionally compliant despite having three commissioners at the time.
The IEBC’s mandate on delimitation of new constituencies was also contested.
The Constitutional Court, where the suit originated, declared that the electoral body has an exclusive mandate on boundary delimitation and that the move by BBI promoters to apportion 70 new constituencies was illegal, a finding upheld by the majority in the Court of Appeal.
Lady Justice Sichale however differed with her six other colleges on the bench, saying BBI promoters acted within the confines of law.