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 Kenyaportal |
The Supreme Court of Kenya is the highest court in Kenya. It is established under Article 163 of the Kenyan Constitution. As the highest court in the nation, its decisions are binding and set precedent on all other courts in the country. [1]
The Supreme Court has both original and appellate jurisdiction, as well as the jurisdiction to give advisory opinions. The Court has exclusive original jurisdiction to hear and determine disputes relating to the elections to the office of president arising under Article 140 of the Constitution. It has appellate jurisdiction to hear and determine appeals from the Court of Appeal and any other court or tribunal as prescribed by national legislation.
Appeals can only be as a matter of right, where the case involves interpretation or application of the Constitution or a matter certified by the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal as one that involves a matter of general public importance. The Supreme Court may review a certification by the Court of Appeal and either affirm, vary or overturn it.
The Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to render advisory opinion at the request of the National Government, any state organ, or any county government with respect to any matter concerning County Governments. It can also determine the validity of a declaration of a state of emergency, an extension of such a declaration, or any legislation enacted in consequence of a declaration of a state of emergency.
These are provided for in Section 3 of the Supreme Court Act, No. 7, of 2011. [2]
The Supreme Court is made up of seven judges: the Chief Justice, who is the President of the Court, the Deputy Chief Justice, who is the Vice-president of the Court, and five other judges.
Like all other judges of the superior courts in Kenya, Judges of the Supreme Court - including the Chief Justice - serve until mandatory retirement at 70 years. However, an individual cannot serve as the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court for more than 10 years even without reaching the age of 70. In the event that a person serves the mandatory ten years as Chief Justice before turning 70, the individual is to retire from the position of Chief Justice but may opt to continue serving as a judge of the Supreme Court, even though this may raise the membership of the court above seven.
The Supreme Court is properly constituted for purposes of its proceedings with five judges sitting. However, two judges can handle interlocutory applications.
The following are the current members of the Supreme Court: [4]
The first round of the presidential election took place on March 4, 2013. Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the president-elect of Kenya by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Raila Odinga challenged this in the Supreme Court due to several technicalities, including discrepancies in voter numbers as reported by the IEBC, and the failure of biometric voter registration kits; it was ultimately dismissed on March 30, 2013.
At the end of the petition, the Supreme Court declined to nullify the election and affirmed the victory of Uhuru Kenyatta.
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The 2017 presidential election took place on August 8, 2017, with the IEBC declaring Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner. Although Raila Odinga and his NASA coalition leaders challenged the declaration, they indicated that they would not file a petition in the Supreme Court given their experience at the Court when they filed a similar petition after the 2013 general election. However, the coalition announced three days later that they would file a case following the government's decision to shut down two leading civil society organisations that had been expected to file a petition at the Court.
Raila Odinga's petition was based on several grounds, including the discrepancy in the presidential vote tally compared to the tally of other elections (the presidential vote tally exceeded the total tally of votes cast for county governors across the country by over half a million), and allegations that the electoral commission's electronic vote transmission system was hacked and a formula introduced which kept Uhuru Kenyatta's vote tally at a consistent 11% ahead of Odinga even as the vote tallies supposedly came in from different parts of the country in which the candidates enjoyed varied support. A statistician prepared an affidavit to show that this gap was statistically impossible if votes came in randomly from different parts of the country. The petitioner also alleged that results declaration forms submitted by the electoral commission were forged to mirror the computer-generated results that were publicly displayed on the results transmission portal that had been hacked, prompting Odinga to refer to the elected leaders as "Vifaranga vya computer", Swahili for "computer hatchlings" or computer-generated leaders. [5]
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Supreme Court rendered a majority decision on September 1, 2017 holding that the election was not conducted in accordance with the Constitution and other electoral laws, that there were illegalities and irregularities committed by the electoral commission including in the results transmission process, and that the said illegalities and irregularities affected the integrity of the election. The Court thus nullified the election and ordered the IEBC to conduct a fresh one within 60 days in accordance with the Constitution, and while observing strict adherence to the law in the new election. Two judges – Justice Prof J. B. Ojwang' and Lady Justice Njoki Ndung'u – dissented.
The Court delivered a brief verdict on September 1, 2017, saying that it did not have the time to prepare a full reasoned judgment due to the amount of evidence presented. A full judgment is to be read in 21 days.
A fake a screenshot shared on Facebook with a tweet purported to be from Supreme Court of Kenya Judge Njoki Ndung’u claiming to have accused Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome of being compromised in her judgement of the 2022 presidential election results in Kenya was fabricated as was reviewed by PesaCheck. [6]
The politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system in accordance with a new constitution passed in 2010.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Raila Amolo Odinga is a Kenyan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013 and has been the Leader of Opposition in Kenya since 2013. He is the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party.
General elections were held in Kenya on 4 March 2013. Voters elected the President, members of the National Assembly and newly formed Senate. They were the first elections held under the new constitution, which was approved in a 2010 referendum, and were also the first run by the new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). They coincided with the 2013 Kenyan local elections.
Jackton Boma Ojwang is a Kenyan lawyer and a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya. Upon retiring from the Supreme Court, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed him as chairperson of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).
Smokin Wanjala is a Kenyan lawyer and a justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya. He holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from the Columbia University in the United States and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nairobi. Wanjala lectured at the University of Nairobi for 15 years, teaching international law, international human rights law, land law and criminal law.
Njoki Susanna Ndung'u is a Kenyan lawyer and a justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from University of Nairobi and a Master of Laws (LLM) in human rights and civil liberties from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. She was born in 1966.
Miguna Miguna is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He practices law as an attorney, a barrister and solicitor in Toronto, Canada. Miguna served as a senior adviser to former Kenyan Prime Minister Collins Lenti Leshornai from 2009 to 2011.
The inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the 4th president of Kenya took place on 9 April 2013. Kenyatta won 50.07% of the vote in the 2013 presidential election, after the supreme court dismissed the Raila petition on 30 March 2013. According to Article 141 (2) (b) of the constitution, in case the Supreme Court upholds the victory of the president-elect, the swearing in will take place on "the first Tuesday following the seventh day following the date on which the court renders a decision declaring the election to be valid." The event was held at Kasarani Stadium.A reception bouquet took place at State House,Nairobi.
The Kenya Presidential Election Petition of 2013 was an election petition aiming to declare the Kenya presidential election 2013 invalid. The Petition was filed at the Supreme Court of Kenya on 16 March 2013.
General elections were held in Kenya on 8 August 2017 to elect the President, members of the National Assembly and Senate. They coincided with the 2017 Kenyan local elections which elected Governors and representatives in the devolved governments.
David Kenani Maraga is a Kenyan lawyer and jurist. He was the 14th Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya from October 2016 until his retirement in January 2021.
Presidential elections were held in Kenya on 26 October 2017 following the Supreme Court's annulment of the results of the presidential vote in the August 2017 general elections. The election was won by incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Party, who won 98.3% of the popular vote to defeat Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Roselyn Kwamboka Akombe is a Kenyan former commissioner of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya.
The 2018 Kenya handshake was a political truce made on 9 March 2018 between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The two had been the leaders of opposing political factions amidst widespread political violence and civil unrest; they had previously faced one another in the contested 2017 Kenyan general election. Under the agreement, their political feud with an agreement that Kenyatta would support Odinga in the upcoming presidential elections. Consequently, the Azimio coalition was formed, Uhuru became its chairman, and Odinga became the presidential candidate with Martha Karua as his running mate. They lost to William Ruto, who was then Kenyatta's deputy. They challenged Ruto's victory in the Supreme Court, but Chief Justice Martha Koome said his claims did not meet the evidentiary threshold and dismissed the case. At a March 2023 protest in Nairobi they demanded an audit of the IEBC election servers.
Peninnah Gathoni Muchomba popularly known as Gathoni Wa Mucomba is a Kenyan journalist, entrepreneur and politician. She is the Member of Parliament for Githunguri Constituency in the bicameral Kenyan parliament since 2022 and a member of the ruling party, UDA. She formerly vied and won the Kiambu women representative post in the 2017 General election. Gathoni garnered 922,829 votes from Kiambu county constituents becoming the third highest candidate with the majority votes after President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
General elections were held in Kenya on Tuesday, 9 August 2022. Voters elected the president, governors, senators, members of the National Assembly, and members of county assemblies.
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) was a proposed set of amendments to the Constitution of Kenya initially proposed in October 2019. In the wake of the 2017 general election annulment and subsequent re-run, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta mandated the formation of the Presidential Taskforce on Building Bridges to Unity Advisory on 31 May 2018. The Taskforce was assigned to provide constitutional and legislative solutions in 9 broad categories:
David Ndii & Others V. Attorney General & Others also known as the BBI Judgement was a landmark ruling made in the Kenya High Court on 13 May 2021, declaring an injunction on Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from proceeding with President Uhuru Kenyatta's and retired Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Building Bridges Initiative. The five-judge bench was to determine seventeen questions raised on the petition against the BBI Process.
Raila Odinga & another v Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & others [2017] KESC 31 (KLR) was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Kenya that nullified the presidential results of the 2017 General Elections in Kenya. The petition was brought forward by Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, the National Super Alliance (NASA) candidates, challenging the legitimacy of Kenya's August 8, 2017, presidential election. They claimed that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and its chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, as well as Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent president and Jubilee Party candidate, committed irregularities during the election. They sought to overturn the election results and demanded a new election be conducted.
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