Court of Appeal President Justice Daniel Musinga has constituted a seven-judge bench to listen to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) case.
The BBI case will be heard between June 29 and July 2.
The seven include Musinga, Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Hannah Okwengu, Patrick Kiage, Gatembu Kairu, Fatuma Sichale and Francis Tuiyott.
Musinga was recently appointed President of the Appellate Court after his predecessor, Justice William Ouko was promoted to the Supreme Court.
This will be his first case in the office. The BBI proponents moved to the Court of Appeal after the High Court declared the initiative null and void.
Musinga on Wednesday, June 2 issued 11 directives that will guide the case. These include;
1. The hearing shall be heard at an open court in a venue to be arranged in compliance with the Covid-19 protocols.
2. The applicants shall be at liberty to make a reply to the respondent's submissions limited to 30 minutes.
3. The consolidated appeal shall be heard by way of written submissions within oral highlights limited to two hours for each appellant and respondent. However, the court shall be at liberty to limit the time allocated to avoid repetition.
4. The respective submissions shall be limited to 40 pages, font 12, 1 & 1/2 spacing.
OODM leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta are confident that they will win the case. Uhuru was angered by the High Court's ruling which he argued was used to tarnish his name and reputation.
"What is before us we will sort out, I am sure. If we have lawyers like Senator James Orengo, can we be defeated really?" he posed.
The 5-judge bench ruled that the President does not have a Constitutional mandate to initiate amendments through a popular initiative under Article 257. They added that he can be sued in his or her personal capacity during his or her tenure in office for contravening the law.
"The President failed to respect uphold and safeguard the Constitution and to that extent, he has fallen short of the leadership and integrity threshold," High Court judge Joel Ngugi declared.
