Lawyer Elias Mutuma has written to Court Of Appeal President Justice Daniel Musinga asking for a seven-judge bench to hear the Building Bridges Initiative case.
Mutuma says he is writing on behalf of Thirdway Alliance, Miruru Waweru and Angela Mwikali who were petitioners in the high court case and are now respondents in the appeal case.
He has requested Justice Musinga to consider having a seven-judge bench to hear the BBI appeal because of the complexity of the case.
He has also asked for the case to be heard physically in adherence to Covid-19 regulations.
Mutuma says the court should assign a case management hearing first so that the court can be able to assess the number of applications made by parties and to help provide coordinated coherent seamless directions.
He says this will ensure expeditious and efficient disposal of applications.
“That you consider assigning this case to a minimum seven-judge bench considering the complexity, breadth and nature of the issues involved including the great public interest the matter has generated,” the letter reads.
Mutuma also wants the court to allocate at least two days for full hearing for the oral submissions arguing that the matter is extremely complex.
The Court of Appeal duty judge has already certified the BBI appeal filed by the state as urgent.
In directions issued to parties through an email, the court directed them to file and serve their documents as they await the President of the Court of Appeal Justice Daniel Musinga to constitute a bench to hear the appeal.
The Attorney General, the BBI Secretariat and all the other appellants have been directed to serve the respondents immediately.
The court has also directed that all the submissions by parties in the case should be limited to three pages only.
However, according to the communication in view of the urgency of the matter, the timelines for filing documents may be reviewed when a bench is constituted for the hearing date of this application.
