Former Attorney General Githu Muigai disproved High Court’s ruling that nullified the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), terming it a ‘dangerous proposition that only invites insurrection.’
He on Wednesday while appearing for the IEBC, argued that the judgement if allowed to stand, would only be a recipe for chaos.
“This judgement cannot be allowed to stand. It violates so many fundamental tenets of good constitutional interpretation and management of constitution conflict, that if it were allowed to stand it would be the recipe of chaos.
Prof Githu was of the school of thought that in its judgement, the High Court trampled on the independence of the IEBC while calling on the Appellate Court to find that the High court had a lot of opportunities to exercise avoidance.
“The judges exercised a jurisdiction that the people of Kenya reserved for the Supreme Court and as a result trampled on the independence of IEBC. Independence is not for the Judiciary alone, it is for every constitutional institution,” he told the Court of Appeal.
He further argued that the judgement seemed to not trust the people of Kenya to make the popular initiative into law, saying that the orders of the High Court are opinions and only the Supreme Court can offer an advisory opinion.
“The judgement made says the people of Kenya cannot be trusted with their own constitution, while there are parts of it nobody knows that will never be amended. This is a very dangerous proposition and only invites insurrection,” Githu said.
He also questioned the IEBC quorum as presented in the judgement, saying it does not matter whether there were three or four commissioners at the time, the work of the law had to be done.
“What was the default membership submission? he posed. IEBC was in very good protection of the law because it met the provisions of Article 250 sub-article 1,” he said.
In his submission, Githu faulted High Court’s decision saying the bench ignored several authorities that were brought to their attention on the very specific cases that they were dealing with.
Wednesday is day two of the submissions on the BBI appeal case before a seven-judge bench led by Court of Appeal President Daniel Musinga.
The hearing will continue through to Friday when the judges will retreat to write a verdict.
Credit: Source link