Former Senator Paul Njoroge files petition to postpone 2022 election

Former Senator Paul Njoroge wants 2022 polls put off. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

Former nominated Senator Paul Njoroge has moved to court seeking to have the August 9, 2022 elections postponed to 2023.

In an application seen by The Standard to the High Court, Njoroge avers that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) irregularly declared that the next Presidential Elections be held on August 9.

Njoroge argues that at the time IEBC made the declaration, the electoral body was improperly constituted and lacked a substantive Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Secretary to the Commission.

The former senator who represented persons with disabilities - an interested party in the case - between 2013 and 2017, adds that IEBC was also improperly constituted as it did not have the requisite quorum of its commissioners when it made the declaration for the tendering and procurement of materials and personnel to be deployed in the election.

He noted that the Commission has embarked and initiated costly and ambitious plans yet the five-year terms of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto have not lapsed.

According to Njoroge, Uhuru and Ruto’s terms will not have lapsed by the August 9 date set by IEBC as their Constitutional terms arithmetically and logically lapse on November 2022.

The former Senator avers that the August 9 date was imposed on the people of Kenya through administrative fiat and has a direct and adverse bearing on the country’s public finances and on the other levels of governance, including the county governments.

Consequently, he says, it is illegal, irregular, and illegitimate calling on the court to avert any further breaches, including the commission’s intended budgetary allocation and disbursements in respect to the August 9 date.

Njoroge’s move to challenge IEBC’s directive comes under a month after a section of MPs, led by Ndaragua MP Jeremiah Kioni, said they were working on a plan to petition the High Court to extend President Uhuru's tenure.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, however, dismissed the calls saying the election will be conducted on August 9 as stipulated in the Constitution, but it will abide by any variation of the law.