Court of Appeal sets BBI hearing date

A seven-judge bench will hear the appeal case on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), from June 29 to July 2.

Court of Appeal President Daniel Musinga (pictured) gave the directive on Wednesday afternoon, after the mention of the case, in which all involved parties participated in the case management conference.

In their resolve, the three-judge bench comprising Daniel Musinga, Roselyn Nambuye and Hannah Okwengu ruled that the BBI hearing will be held in an open court at a venue to be arranged in compliance with Covid-19 protocols.

All parties appealing High Court’s judgement on BBI have been given seven days to file written submissions.

Other directives the court gave include:

1. All the appeals shall be heard on a priority basis.

2. All intended appellants who have filed notices of appeal shall be at liberty to file supplementary records of appeal and/or memorandum of appeal as may be appropriate within seven days from the date hereof.

3. Any respondent intending to file a cross-appeal shall be at liberty to do so within seven days of the date hereof.

4. All appellants shall file and serve their respective submissions within seven days of the date hereof.

5. The respondents shall file and serve their respective submissions within 14 days from the date of service of the appellants’ submissions. 

6. The appellant shall be at liberty to file replies within three days of the respondents’ submissions.

7. That the respective submissions shall be limited to 40 pages and;

8. The appellants shall be at liberty to make a reply to the respondents’ submission limited to 30 minutes.

The Appellate court in its ruling has also allowed the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to continue discharging its statutory functions except on matters related to BBI.

There are four applications challenging the nullification of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2020, filed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, the BBI Secretariat, the Attorney General, and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Lawyers Waweru Gatonye and Mohammed Nyaoga are representing Kenyatta, while James Orengo is representing Odinga and the BBI Secretariat. Githu Muigai and Eric Gumbo, on the other hand, are appearing for the IEBC.

Others include Solicitor-General Kennedy Ogeto, lawyers Nelson Havi, Paul Mwangi and Martha Karua.