By Samuel Ouma
Kenya's Court of Appeal has announced that the appeal case on Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will be heard from June 29 to Jul 2.
The courts’ President Justice Daniel Musinga said a seven-judge bench would hear the case.
The case was mentioned on Wednesday in which all involved parties participated in the case management conference.
Appellants have been directed to file written submission within seven days, and the hearing will be heard in an open court at a venue to be arranged in compliance with Covid-19 protocols.
Four applications are challenging the nullification of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2020, filed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga, BBI secretariat, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), and the Attorney General.
The court also ordered IEBC to continue discharging its statutory functions except on matters related to BBI.
The High Court had barred the electoral agency from conducting any elections due to lack of quorum. IEBC has only three commissioners after others resigned.
Other directives include:
1. All the appeals shall be heard on a priority basis.
2. All intended appellants who have filed notices of appeal shall be at liberty to file supplementary records of appeal and/or memorandum of appeal as may be appropriate within seven days from the date hereof.
3. Any respondent intending to file a cross-appeal shall be at liberty to do so within seven days of the date hereof.
4. All appellants shall file and serve their respective submissions within seven days of the date hereof.
5. The respondents shall file and serve their respective submissions within 14 days from the date of service of the appellants’ submissions.
6. The appellant shall be at liberty to file replies within three days of the respondents’ submissions.
7. That the respective submissions shall be limited to 40 pages and;
8. The appellants shall be at liberty to reply to the respondents' submission limited to 30 minutes.