The High Court has termed the amendments made to the Elections Act in 2016 illegal faulting Parliament for failing to follow the Constitution and standing orders.
Judge George Odunga in his ruling cited that two joint parliamentary meetings called by the speakers of the Senate and National Assembly to discuss changes to the election law were illegal.
According to the Standard, he said that though he cannot quash the laws since they were applied in last year’s elections, the proceedings to amend them did not follow procedure and they breached the Constitution.
The passing of the amendments were first hit by a major disagreement between Jubilee and the then Cord legislators on December 20, 2016 prompting the House Speaker, Justin Muturi to adjourn the day’s sitting but gazetted another one two days later.
On December 22, 2016, opposition MPs stormed out of the House while proceedings were going on where Jubilee MPs passed the amendments. Some of the major changes were adoption of a manual identification of voters, tallying and transmission of results in the 2017 election.
The judge in his ruling also faulted the Speaker for allowing deployment of security personnel within Parliament precincts during the second sitting which he had called for. He said this was uncalled for because there was no threat reported to any state agency.
Odunga also said there was no need to have s special sitting called for by the Speaker for a second time.
“In what was an aberration of our history and Parliament business and operations of both houses, the precincts of Parliament were barricaded by the police and paramilitary security forces. It tainted the image of Parliament as a people’s democratic institution with elected representatives of the people enjoying the power and privileges of Parliament,” ruled the judge as quoted by the Standard.
In his defense, the Speaker had told the court that security personnel deployed to Parliament precincts was warranted in avoidance of chaos which had rocked the first sitting where some members had sneaked in pepper spray and whistles.
The Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai who had been sued alongside Muturi said in his submission that the laws were passed as a matter of public interest because their aim was to allow Kenyans vote with ease.