•The court had directed that the Attorney General and the IEBC, who are the appellants, will each have 45 minutes to highlight their submissions while the respondents will also each have 45 minutes to respond.
• In a letter dated January 16 through Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto, the AG has asked the court to reconsider the time allocated to them.
Parties in the BBI appeal, which is scheduled to start hearings Tuesday, are unhappy with the time allocated to them by the Supreme Court.
On Friday, the deputy registrar of the apex court issued directions to parties on how the case will be conducted for the three days it will be heard.
A source, who requested not to be named because he is close to the case, said the Supreme Court is in an unnecessary rush even though the matter is no longer going to impact the next general election.
“There is no other chance to appeal the case. The Supreme Court should just slow down and give the case sufficient attention. You can see that both sides are unhappy with the court's unilateral directions. It in fact gets basic facts wrong in those directions,” the source said.
The court had directed that the Attorney General and the IEBC, who are the appellants, will each have 45 minutes to highlight their submissions while the respondents will also each have 45 minutes to respond.
The court only allowed 11 respondents including David Ndii, Jerotich Seii, Thirdway Alliance, Phelister Wakesho, Muhuri and Isaac Aluochier, as the main respondents who initially filed the matter at the High Court, to submit.
However, parties from both sides have written letters to the deputy registrar saying they are either dissatisfied with the time given or being left out of the list of the main parties who will submit to court.
In a letter dated January 16 through Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto, the AG has asked the court to reconsider the time allocated to them.
Ogeto says their appeal contains the majority of the grounds identified by the court as constituting the matters to be addressed in the consolidated appeals, while the IEBC will be dealing with two or one ground.
Ogeto further claims that the respondents have been allocated a combined time of more than six hours to reply to the submissions.
“The appellants have been allocated a combined time of two hours and fifteen minutes against the respondents six hours. It is the AGs humble view that even on the basis of equality of arms, the time allocated to the two sides should be equal or as near as possible,” the letter reads.
Justus Juma and Isaac Ogada have also written to the court saying they were left out of the list of respondents and should also be allocated 45 minutes since they were the main petitioners at the High Court.
Lawyer Dudley Ochiel has also written to the court saying his client Dr Jack Mwimali has been left out of the list and should also be granted 45 minutes as a main respondent.
Ochiel has opposed the inclusion of Phelister Wakesho as a main respondent, arguing that she was not a petitioner but has been allocated 45 minutes to the detriment of real petitioners.
Dr Duncan Ojwang, Professor John Ambani and Dr Linda Musumba have also written, saying they are adversely affected by the said directions of the court.
Through lawyer Muthoni Nyuguto, they argue that they are substantive parties in the petition and should be allocated time to submit.
The hearing of the case is expected to start Tuesday until Thursday as per the court’s directions.
The AG and the IEBC appealed the judgement of the Court of Appeal which upheld the High Court’s decision that nullified the BBI process.
Edited by A.N