A number of election petitions are beginning to look pretty ominous for the incumbents, what with opponents scoring crucial ‘victories’ in preliminary rulings.
True, there may be nothing really significant to the actual outcome of the main case in, say, a court dismissing Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula’s claim that he was served the petition irregularly. Or even the courts ordering the re-tallying of Starehe constituency votes against the wishes of assistant minister Margaret Wanjiru.
But perhaps what a clever incumbent might wish to do is to find a judge blessed with a temper. Once that is ascertained, it should be fairly easy to provoke an action that could at least delay the hearing proper for such a long time as to kill the interest of the petitioner through rising costs or the limited number of days remaining for the particular term.
Objections
It would work like this. Let your lawyer raise a preliminary objection. Claim, for instance, that your supporters are in danger and you would want a court in Nairobi to determine if your rights to the moral boost of your followers are being undermined. Arrange to have the case heard by a guy who blows off fast and just sit back and relax.
Lawyers are naturally a pesky lot. Instruct yours to deliberately work up the Bench. He or she can claim sort of unsubstantiated allegations: that he knows for a fact that the guy also wants Joyce Akinyi; that you know he frequents a gay bar; that he has love troubles on account of a challenged measurement in critical areas etc.
As we now know, judges are human too. They are capable of losing their cool, sometimes physically so. It is important, therefore, to urge your lawyer to stay very close to the judge while he works him up. If he lifts a pen, or even a paper, immediately file a case seeking a review of your rights to protection from his temper. By the time the matter is dispensed with, it will be 2011!
