Raila Odinga's NASA and his rival's Jubilee Party have been wiped out of the Supreme Court case by Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa. [Standard]
The Opposition Coalition NASA has been dealt a blow after the Supreme Court deprived it of the privilege to be a respondent in a case challenging the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
This decision was made parallel to one that expunged IEBC memos from the ongoing presidential petition.
Chief Justice David Maraga declined prayers by NASA and Jubilee to join the proceedings.
NASA sought to join the petition on grounds that its co-principals are directly mentioned but Chief Justice David Maraga did not permit this.
The Mue-Khalifa petition among other things cites NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s withdrawal from last month’s poll as having negatively impacted the conduct of the election.
Through his lawyers, President Kenyatta had made an application seeking to have the NASA outfit expunged from the petition.
The President’s lead counsel Fred Ngatia told the Supreme Court Tuesday evening that NASA had instead of filing a substantive petition within timelines required in law used the opportunity as a respondent to sneak in arguments outside a petition filed by activists Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa.
Ngatia argued that submissions filed by NASA in response to the Mue-Khalifa petition had raised new issues altogether, instead of replying to the petition.
“It will not be possible to be able to answer two petitions; one which we’ve already answered and the other one which cannot be answered,” Ngatia told the Supreme Court bench.
“The fact is that the withdrawn candidate is no candidate at all. He’s simply gone out of the picture and his involvement therefore in this context cannot be understood other than that of coming to so to speak confuse issues,” he added.
The apex court also heard an application by ruling Jubilee Party seeking to be enjoined in a petition filed by the Institute for Democracy and Governance (IDEG).
But NASA lawyers contested its admissibility on grounds that it fails to meet the threshold for presidential petitions under Article 140 of the Constitution.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had contested the use of “leaked memos” from IEBC as part of court evidence by the petitioners-Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa.
Through his lead Consel Fred Ngatia, Kenyatta asked the court not to admit the memos as they were obtained illegally.
IEBC had compared the petitioners to a team that was on a fishing expedition.
"This application should be dismissed with cost," its lawyers told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The court denied AG Githu Muigai's prayers to be an amicus curiae saying his application did not address points of law that had been raised.
The Court however admitted the AG’s office as an interested party since issues raised by the petitioners touch on the conduct of state officers.
"We have gone through the application by the AG and unanimously agree the merits of the application meets the criteria and admitted as an interested party," Justice Njoki Ndung'u said.