The High Court sitting in Nairobi has granted Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, 45 days to file a response in a petition seeking to stop the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The court on Tuesday, September 28, asked the Education boss to provide adequate information that will help it in determination of the matter within the stipulated timeline.
CS Magoha, through lawyer Phillip Murgor, had asked the court to grant him 60 days to file a response in the petition by Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President, Nelson Havi.
“My client seeks 60 days to put in a detailed response. The programme has been going on for three years and the order sought is to stop it,” Murgor appealed.
Murgor added that if the court makes a decision without allowing the CS table material that proves he did not violate the constitution, it shall be an unjust ruling.
In his argument, the defendant claimed that the time will also be helpful to the court because the main petition filed by a parent, Esther Ang'awa, had a total of 1700 pages.
Justice Antony Mrima, however, said the 45 days granted should be sufficient for the petitioner to comfortably read through Ang’awa’s petition, and give an encyclopedic response.
In the main petition, lawyer Esther Ang’awa, through Havi, wants the court to bar the government from further implementation of the CBC system of education.
In his response, Justice Mrima directed that all respondents, Magoha and his Interior counterpart, Fred Matiangi, have 45 days to give their responses.
In the stated timeline, all the respondents shall file and present the LSK president with their feedback in the main petition challenging CBC.
Notably, the petitioner had requested that the case be transferred to the Supreme Court, for Chief Justice Martha Koome and the other Judges to hear and determine it.
Magoha, in his response, requested another seven days to present his response pertaining to the request.
