Activist Okiya Omtatah says he will appeal a decision by the Supreme Court deputy registrar to dismiss his application for a hearing on the two-thirds gender rule.
Ole Keiwua dismissed the application in November last year.
The activist asked the court to revoke a decision that made the two-thirds gender rule a constitutional imperative.
Omtatah and Wycliffe Nyakina wanted the court to declared its findings on the gender principle in its advisory opinion of December 2012 unconstitutional and therefore invalid. “In the circumstances, I decline to admit it. It is so ordered,” Keiwua said. Omtatah said there are no benefits in raising the membership figure of the national legislative bodies beyond the present prescription, saying more women lawmakers will burden the taxpayer.
“I’m preparing to appeal the unlawful decision. The deputy registrar has no capacity to make such judicial decisions,” Omtatah said.
He is an administrator and not a judge of the Supreme Court and must limit his work to administrative matters and leave judicial issues to the judges.”
The activists say the clamour to apply the gender rule is unreasonable.
Keiwua said Omtatah’s application was in conflict with the terms of the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
He said he was he was at liberty to decline to admit pleadings that are not in accordance with the Constitution.
Omtatah is allowed to appeal Keiwua’s decision which can be reviewed by a single judge of the court.
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