Nomination of LSK’s Dorothy Jemator to IEBC selection panel overturned

The High Court has overturned the nomination of Dorothy Jemator as Law Society of Kenya (LSK) representative to the selection panel of the IEBC.

On Tuesday, Justice George Odunga ordered National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi to instead receive the nomination of Morris Kimuli.

“In the matter of an application of Alfonse Kilonzi Muli for orders of certiorari, prohibition and mandamus….an order of certiorari is hereby issued removing into this court for the purposes of being quashed and quashing the decision of the 1st respondent transmitting to the President the name of the 2nd interested party for appointment to the selection panel for the appointment of the commissioners of the IEBC and any subsequent actions and decisions taken in pursuance of the said transmission,” the ruling reads.

The Parliamentary Service Commission is listed as the 1st respondent while Jemator is the 2nd interested party.

In his ruling, Justice Odunga cited Halsbury’s Laws of England 5th edition Volume 61 and De Smith’s Judicial Review, 7th Edition, saying: “If the court has found there to be a breach of duty, a mandatory order may be granted if in all the circumstances that appears to the court to be the appropriated form of relief.”

On April 21, President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated Jemator; Dr Elizabeth Muli; Gideon Solonka; James Achoka Awori; Elizabeth Odundo Meyo; Rev Fr Jospeh Ngumbi Mutie and Dr Farudin Suleiman Abdalla to the panel.

The nominees were sworn in a week later, all except for Jemator, after Justice Antony Mrima issued orders suspending her appointment to the panel.

A splinter group had formed within the LSK — led by its president Nelson Havi– and nominated a different representative.