CJ picks judges for suit against Parliament

By Maureen Mudi

The Chief Justice has appointed a three-judge Bench to hear a suit in which a voter wants Parliament dissolved.

Justice Evan Gicheru directed that hearing of the suit in which Mr Joseph Ochwangi Onyiego has sued the Attorney General and the House Speaker, to commence on May 19 in Nairobi.

Mr Onyiego moved to court to seek orders to have Parliament dissolved, and new presidential and parliamentary elections held, following disbandment of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK).

Through lawyer Gikandi Ngibuini, the voter also wants the AG to be ordered to take over all functions, duties, responsibilities and rights conferred by law, upon ECK, pending an interim commission taking office.

In the application, Onyiego claims that since Parliament passed an Act that disbanded the ECK on grounds that it was incompetent, unreliable and acted fraudulently in carrying out the December 2007 elections, MPs should not enjoy their status because certificates of their election were issued by the condemned ECK.

The voter also wants the court to order that the AG, as the chief legal adviser to Government, takes over all pending petitions until the Interim Independent Electoral Commission is formed.

"The Kriegler Report recommended that the ECK was unreliable and should be replaced by an interim commission," he said.