Supreme Court moves hearing of presidential petition to Monday

The Supreme Court of Kenya has postponed the hearing of the 2017 presidential petition case filed by National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate, Raila Odinga.

On Saturday, August 27, the seven-judge bench held a pre-trial conference to set the rules of engagement, with the legal teams representing the parties to the petition disagreeing on a number of issues forcing the judges to intervene and make a ruling before the commencement of the case.

The rulings on friends of the court (amici curiae) applications, IEBC server access and late submissions were to be made at 2 pm on Sunday, August 27 and then at 7 pm on the same day, the hearing of the petition was to commence.

However, the rulings have been pushed to 7 pm on Sunday, August 27 and the hearing of the petition will begin tomorrow morning (August 28).

The Supreme Court has not categorically stated the reasons for these changes but during Saturday’s submissions, both the petitioner and defense legal teams had expressed their intention to first of all restructure their submissions and nature of the case before hearing begins.

The Supreme Court will be making rulings on whether NASA will be granted permission to access servers of IEBC, affidavits and evidence filed late after the constitutional deadline by NASA should be used in the petition, late filing of affidavits and the enjoinment of Attorney General, Githu Muigai, the Law Society of Kenya, and other presidential candidates to the petition as friends of the court.