Tomorrow afternoon at the National Endowment for Democracy, Joel Barkan and Maina Kiai will discuss “The Implications of the Kenyan Election”. Watch the video stream from 1930 to 2100 GMT or 1:30 to 3:00pm EDT (Washington) time.
In continuing to try to come to grips with the lack of substance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the election petition cases, I am reminded of an article from The Africa Report for February, titled “Can They Pull It Off? The judiciary and electoral commission say they are prepared for the 4 March vote and will not repeat the mistakes of the contested December 2007 polls”.
In the article, the new Chief Justice Mutunga gives what my be some foreshadowing of the Court’s ultimate deference to the IEBC in the election petitions:
Keeping the three arms of government separate and independent should not rule out constructive cooperation, says Mutunga: “I see us protecting the independence of the judiciary but also realising that you’ve got to talk to the ministry of finance, to parliament and that sometimes you might also ask the president to intervene.”
A dialogue between the arms of state is important, insists Mutunga: “As a matter of fact, President [Mwai] Kibaki has never called me about a case. The the hotline [from the President’s office to the Chief Justice’s] is not hot — nobody uses it!” As chief justice, Mutunga joined discussions last year with businesses and President Kibaki about how to ensure the elections were credible and peaceful. He added that the judiciary is committed to helping the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). For example, it has allocated special courts to deal with all electoral disputes quickly.
. . . .
There is, however, nervousness about how the IEBC will fare . . . .
If the role of the Court is to work collectively with the other parts of the Government to promote “credibility” to keep “peace” then perhaps it is best to ignore “legalistic” details like more votes than registered voters in many polling places, and the raising and lowering of the number of registered voters in various parts of the country. Perhaps this is what is meant by a “robust” and “progressive” jurisprudence.
Related articles
- Thoughts on Kenya’s Supreme Court opinion (africommons.com)
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- Kenyan election: What kind of “audit” did the IEBC do without the actual voter registration lists used? Will the Supreme Court require the registers to be disclosed as sought by AfriCOG? (africommons.com)
Same script,old cast.How comes our ‘able’ CJ didnt take any action against the rogue Nakuru magistrate,a one FELIX MUTINDA KOMBO,yet his office was furnished,even by the media,all the sustainable evidence to prove of his evil ways?!Even video clips and a number of fotos of him(dated mid last year,2012) and naked UNDERAGE students whose only crime is to go for clinicals(the mandatory judiciary attachment for one to complete his undergraduate Law degree).Infact they all deduced to multiple rapes.The affected female students all lodged formal complaints and nothing was acted on,afterwhich he(the magistrate)bragged that he gets away with everything,since he’z the CJ cousin,and the former even knows his weaknesses with ladies.Only God can save the Judiciary.Shollei’z scenario is even icing of the cake,if you go to nakuru law courts,you risk being raped.Today it might have been them,tomorrow it’ll be you or your daughter or even mum.Almighty have mercy on us.
My names are Steve Mutinda, a student at the University of Nairobi,
School of Law, Parklands Campus. There were defamatory remarks made
about Hon. Felix Mutinda Kombo, a magistrate in Nakuru Law Courts.
They were made in my account in Facebook through the links of NTV and
Kenya Times on 4th September 2013. I do sincerely state that those
posts were not mine and a malicious person might have accessed my
account illegally (hacking) or found it open and decided to post the libel. I
sincerely state that I don’t know the Hon. Felix Mutinda and I have
never met him and I will be biased to post anything about him, good or
bad. I take this opportunity to apologise to Hon. Felix Mutinda
himself, his family, relatives, friends and his colleagues at work. It
has never been my intention, it’s not my intention and it will never
be my intention to defame a person. My classmates, Martin Maitha King’ondu and Jacky Naserian who are my classmates and have worked with Hon. Felix Kombo and did their clinical attachment with him last year (2012) can attest that he is a man of good character and good reputation and the allegations against him are untrue word by word. Otherwise I restate that those
were not my comments but were posted through my account in Facebook
without my knowledge. I sincerely apologise for the pain caused by
those hurting comments about Hon. Felix Mutinda Kombo, a magistrate in
Nakuru Law Courts
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