As the debate on postponing the 2022 General Election rages on, a former nominated senator, Paul Njoroge has moved to court, asking the August 9, 2022 polls to be declared null and void.
If successful, the move effectively extends President Uhuru Kenyatta term in office.
After petitioning the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on August 2, asking that the August 9, 2022 General Election be moved to August 2023 to allow President Uhuru Kenyatta to serve his full term, Njoroge has now moved to court, asking the upcoming polls to be declared illegal and unlawful.
His argument is that the Independent and Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) made an announcement of the election date at a time it was not properly constituted, considering only three commissioners were in office.
In a petition filed in court on Monday, August 6 the former senator argues that the IEBC will have shortened the 5-year constitutional term that the president is required to serve, if the General Elections will be held on the scheduled date of August 9, 2022.
"The intended presidential election of 9th August is imposed on the people of Kenya through an administrative fiat of the IEBC and therefore illegal, irregular and illegitimate," the petition stated.
Njoroge also accuses the IEBC of illegally, unlawfully and irregularly procuring costly hardware, software materials and personnel to be deployed in the intended presidential election.
"This Honourable Court has the power, mandate, duty and jurisdiction to avert any and all further breaches of the Constitution and other written laws by the Respondents jointly and severally, pending hearing and determination of the Application and the Petition herein,” Njoroge states in his application.
Earlier on the former senator had petitioned the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to alter the 2022 election date. He had proposed that the election date be pushed to August 2023.
This is happening after the IEBC was instructed by Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) to float a fresh tender for the supply of the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System.
On August 11, the central independent procurement appeals review board barred IEBC from awarding a tender for the supply of the new Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System, forcing the electoral body to go back to the drawing board.
Recently, new IEBC Commissioners were sworn in, ending a quorum crisis, after the High Court and the Court of Appeal declared that the commission was not fully constituted while ruling on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill.
