High Court allegedly denies KANU a copy of KICC-land judgement

A view of the Kenyatta International Convention Center.[ File Standard]

Kenya African National Union party (KANU) alleges to have been denied a signed copy of a ruling made by Justice Jacqueline Mogeni over the disputed land that KICC sits on.

Mogeni on Monday, ruled in favour of the government, placing ownership of the land in its hands.

Displeased with the ruling, the party through a circular seen by the Standard, vowed to appeal the case.

However, according to KANU’s Director of Communications Manasse Nyainda, the court has denied them a signed copy of the ruling, a move he says seeks to block them from appealing Monday’s ruling.

“For the fifth day running, the party's legal team has literally camped at the court's registry waiting to be furnished with the signed copy of the "typed" judgement to no avail. The impediments deliberately erected to explicitly deny the party's legal team access to the full judgement threaten to scuttle the critical preparation for the next legal steps,” said Nyainda.

Legally, to appeal a case, a copy of the ruling is needed as it contains a record of all of the information on what happened in the trial court.

According to Nyainda, the right to access court judgements is fundamental to the rule of law, therefore, denying them undermines the foundation of justice it stands on.

The two parties have been on a four-year court battle that was rekindled in 2020 when KANU reintroduced the matter under the new constitution.

KANU insists it procedurally acquired the land the iconic KICC conference facility sits on under the previous constitutional dispensation making it the ‘legitimate and bona fide’ owner of the property.