Court Suspends Uasin Gishu County Assembly Sittings

The High Court in Eldoret has temporarily suspended Uasin Gishu County Assembly sittings following a court case filed by a civil society group challenging its composition.

Justice Wananda Anuro issued the orders in a case filed by human rights activist Kimutai Kirui. 

Justice Anuro ordered that the sittings and operations of the assembly be suspended pending the hearing and determination of the case.

“An order is hereby issued suspending all official sittings/meetings, deliberations by members of the county assembly of Uasin Gishu county assembly pending the hearing and determination of this application,”read part order.

Kirui moved to court after an earlier court decision vacated the nomination of nine United Democratic Alliance (UDA) members to the assembly to fulfil the two-third requirement.

The human rights activist based in Eldoret argued in his petition that the assembly is not fully and dully constituted for the first sittings after a General Election unless all the members required under the constitution have been fully nominated and their names published in the gazettte.

According to Kirui, the county assembly falls short of the required membership because the women and marginalised are not adequately represented. He said that the county assembly has therefore been operating illegally.

He held that the County assembly of Uasin Gishu has no business carrying out transactions and deliberations or sittings when it is not properly constituted.

He further argued that the election of 9 members had been challenged in court which declared that they were not validly nominated.

Last month 9 UDA nominated MCAs moved to the Court of appeal after the High Court upheld a ruling revoking their nomination.

The nominated MCAs had filed a notice of appeal seeking to have execution of the High Court judgment issued by Justice Stephen Riech stayed pending the determination of their second appeal.

While delivering the judgment revoking nomination of the UDA nominated MCAs, Justice Riech agreed with the lower court decision stating that the UDA party as well as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), while nominating the MCAs, relied on a list which had been declared null and void by the political parties tribunal.

The Court stated that the UDA Party did not have any powers to revise, amend or review the party list once it was closed on July 27 last year.

The court further noted that even after the political parties’ tribunal nullified the new list following complaints by the affected party members, the IEBC ignored the same and went ahead to rely on the nullified list.

The matter will be mentioned on October 18 for further directions.