SUPREME COURT: RIGATHI GACHAGUA IS UNFIT TO BE RUTO’S DP

In court documents seen by K24, the activists wanted the apex court to block Gachgua from taking officers citing integrity issues.

They further wanted the court to declare the nomination of Gachagua as an invalid running mate arguing that President-elect William Ruto violated the Constitution by declaring Gachagua his deputy in the August 9 polls.

The court dismissed the petition citing it null and void.

“The Notice of Motion dated August 5, 2022, and Petition dated August 5, 2022, are for the reasons given, incompetent and are hereby struck out,” the judgement read.

Further, the Supreme Court also ruled to throw out a petition seeking to stop President-Elect William Ruto from being sworn in on September 13.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), had filed a response to the petition arguing that the Supreme Court, did not have the powers to deal with the issues raised by the petitioners.

Similar arguments were presented by Ruto, Gachagua and UDA Party in a separate joint response where they opined that the apex court lacks the powers to hear the case.

They also argued that the petitioner prematurely and wrongly invoked the authority of the Supreme Court to hear and determine constitutional matters.

“The petition is an abuse of the court process and it amounts to forum shopping in that the petitioners have filed a similar petition at the High Court constitutional division where they are seeking similar orders and based on the same set of facts,” the respondents stated.

“This court can only sit as a court of the first instance in such a matter pursuant to the provisions of Article 140 of the constitution (questions as to the validity of presidential election).

“This matter offends the doctrine of exhaustion as regards the avenues of recourse available in the constitution, the Elections Act and IEBC’s rules of procedure on settlement of disputes,” they added.

Source: Kenyans