Parties challenging the Building Bridges Initiative yesterday suffered a setback after the Supreme Court sent them back to the Attorney General.
While rejecting direct admission of advisory opinion cases filed by Nandi and Kericho county assemblies, as well as Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, the court ruled that the petitioners should seek the AG’s advice before it can take up the cases.
Nandi and Kericho counties are seeking to know whether MCAs can amend the referendum bill while Kivutha wants the court to find that the national government cannot run a popular initiative to change the Constitution.
High Court judge Jairus Ngaah had declined to bar Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission from verifying signatures collected by BBI task force.
Justice Ngaah, in a case filed by James Gitau, said the verification exercise should continue as the case on whether IEBC has defied court orders by failing to incorporate diaspora voters in the exercise is being heard.
Gitau urged the judge to stop IEBC from verifying the signatures until diaspora voters are incorporated.
There are five cases filed before the High Court by economist David Ndii and others, another by nurses’ union, Thirdway Alliance and Justus Juma as well as the one by Isaac Ogola and Gitau.
The Chief Justice is expected to constitute a three-judge bench to hear the cases.
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