Justice Francis Tuiyott in his judgment on the Building Bridges Initiative has upheld the decision by the High court which ruled that IEBC had quorum when it embarked on the referendum's verification of signatures.
"IEBC should have filled the vacant positions. IEBC should carry out its functions with all hands on deck," he said on Friday.
Tuiyott said the Statute fixes the composition of IEBC to seven and a quorum of five which has not been challenged.
"IEBC was not quorate when it embarked on the business of verifying BBI signatures. The Commission needed to be in the right quorum," he ruled.
"A drastically reduced membership could lead to the public losing confidence in the ability and neutrality of the Commission."
Tuiyott said to hold that the quorum of the IEBC could be anything less than half of the membership of seven is to weaken the commission.
"It is common ground that IEBC formulated administrative procedures to guide the verification of signatures," he added.
The much anticipated BBI judgment is currently being delivered by a seven-judge bench of the Court of Appeal.
Court president Justice Daniel Musinga is leading his colleagues Patrick Kiage, Hannah Okwengu, Fatuma Sichale, Francis Tuiyott, Roselyne Nambuye and Gatembu Kairu in delivering the judgment.
Edited by D Tarus
