Nairobi governor Mike Sonko wants Starehe MP Charles Njagua's case against the boda boda ban dismissed.
The governor, in grounds of opposition filed in court on Tuesday, said issues being advanced by the MP - also known as Jaguar - were litigated and conclusively determined by the court.
Thus, Sonko says, the case is incompetent and fatally defective.
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The governor noted than in October 2016,
High Court judge Joseph Onguto
conclusively heard and determined the matter.
In the judgement, Onguto held that riders have no rights operating within the CBD.
The suit Sonko is referring to, and which was dismissed by the judge in February 2016, had been filed by City Riders Sacco.
In dismissing that case, the judge held that the riders failed to prove how their rights were violated when the county ordered them out of the CBD.
The operators had sued the county government after they were stopped from operating within the city by then governor Evans Kidero in November 2015.
And according to Sonko, bringing similar issues before court when they have already been resolved is an abuse of the court process.
The governor says Jaguar has also not demonstrated that he has an arguable case which warrants any issuance of orders.
"This application is abstract, vague and fails to illustrate the legal and facture threshold for grant of the orders sought," Sonko says in court papers.
He says the section 118 (a) of the Traffic Act 403 of 2014 gives him power to make laws and regulate taxicabs and by extension boda boda.
Thus he argues, Jaguar's suit is contrary to overriding objective of the court and a waste of judicial time.
The county government issued a notice on January 22, warning of hefty fines, arrest and long jail terms for riders found contravening the directive.
In its notice, the government said riders will no longer access the central business district except those offering courier services.
Jaguar went to court to fight for the riders arguing that the directive was reached without any consultation.
The MP’s contention is that the ban is curtailing the economic rights of many riders who rely on ferrying passengers to and from the CBD.
He wants the court to overturn the county’s decision saying is was unilaterally made, and is also based on irrelevant considerations.