NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 25 – The Milimani Law Courts is set to be closed for eleven days from Friday, to allow for the hearing of the petition challenging President-elect William Ruto’s victory.
In a notice to the public, the Judiciary said urgent cases will be handled at the City Court while other matters will be mentioned virtually.
“All advocates, prosecuting counsels, clients, national police service, and the prison service take note that Milimani Chief Magistrate criminal court and Traffic Court will not be physically accessible due to the hearing of the Presidential Election Petitions from August 26 to September 5, 2022,” a part of the notice read.
The Milimani Law Courts will temporarily host the Supreme Court sittings during the hearing of the nine Presidential petitions with the proceedings set to take place at the Ceremonial Hall.
Previous Presidential Petitions were heard and determined at the Supreme Court Building, within the Central Business District.
The Supreme Court had received nine Presidential Petitions by close of business on Monday.
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga who is the main petitioner accused IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati of usurping the role and functions of the commission by declaring results from the 27 constituencies that had not been tallied or verified by the commission.
The Azimio coalition wants both a re-run and a re-tallying of the August 9th Presidential Election.
The petition largely placed Chebukati at the centre of the dispute.
The Azimio petition indicates that Chebukati failed to tally around 140,000 votes.
As a result, Ruto “did not meet the constitutional threshold of 50% plus 1 of the valid votes cast” – a requirement for him to be declared the winner.
Apart from Odinga, other petitioners include John Njoroge Kamau, Daniel Kariuki Ngari, Juliah Nyokabi, Khalef Khalifa, Okiya Omtatah, Youth Advocacy Africa and Reuben Kigame.
Kigame, a gospel musician cum politician was also in the race to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta before the electoral body locked him out of the race.
He argued that IEBC put in place unreasonable deadlines for presidential aspirants in order to be cleared to run, thereby locking out some aspirants.
On the other hand, Chama Cha Kazi Party leader Moses Kuria also moved to the Supreme Court to dismiss Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Presidential Candidate Raila Odinga ’s petition seeking to nullify President-elect William Ruto’s win.
In his suit papers, the former Gatundu South MP cited the violence that was witnessed during last Monday’s declaration at the Bomas of Kenya as his main reason.
The seven-judge-bench is set to hear, determine and issue their verdict by September 5.
