Seven judge bench to hear appeal against BBI ruling

Seven judges will hear and determine an appeal filed against a recent High Court ruling on Building Bridges Initiative ( BBI).

The Court of Appeal President Daniel Musiga announced on Wednesday along with Justices Anne Okwengu and Roselyn Nambuye in a case management conference with lawyers to give directions on the appeals.

Lawyers led by Senior Counsel James Orengo termed the appeal as urgent and agreed with the court to consolidate the appeals instead of hearing the application.

In a ruling delivered  by a five-judge bench on May 14th noted that the process was unconstitutional as Its movers usurped the power of the people 

In their ruling Judges George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresa Matheka , Chacha Mwita and Joel Ngugi further ruled that President Uhuru Kenyatta acted above his mandate when he proposed the amendments

"The president overstretched his powers when he proposed amendments to the constitution outside his clear mandate.” the Judges ruled 

While ruling in favour of eight consolidated petitions against the BBI BIll, the five-judge bench ruled  that the Head of State formed and gazetted a BBI steering committee thus rendering the entire process state-sponsored.

According to the judges both the BBI secretariat and steering committee was, therefore, an unconstitutional outfit.

On whether it was constitutional for the Bill to propose the number of constituencies, the judges determined that the number of constituencies can be deliminated as long as the procedures are followed further ruling that the creation of 70 new constituencies is unlawful.

They unanimously noted that the BBI Bill appears to direct the electoral body on its constitutional mandate Ignoring key processes in the delimination of boundaries particularly the input of the public.

On the question of whether IEBC was properly constituted to confirming the authenticity of the signatures collected and the conducting of a referendum if the Bill sails through, the court ruled that the commission didn't have the quorum and its decision was invalid, null and void.

The ruling comes barely days after the August Houses; the National Assembly and the Senate overwhelmingly adopted the Bill.

In what seemed as a stab at politicians castigating the High Court BBI judgement, Justice Musinga advised against indignity and prosecuting the case in the media asking the parties to allow the court to make a fair and informed decision without causing tension.

" Let us be civil, respect one another and be balanced in our communications. This is an important judicial process that must be handled in a very civil manner, " said Justice Musinga.

The appellate court has set the end of June to early July as the date for hearing the appeal.