The Supreme Court of Kenya has consolidated the seven petitions challenging the declaration of William Ruto as President-elect to one.
Addressing the Court on Tuesday, August 30, Chief Justice Martha Koome announced that they took the decision to consolidate the petitions as they all sought similar reliefs, including annulling the election victory of Ruto.
She further announced that former Prime Minister Raila Odinga will be the primary petitioner in the case.
"We find that all those petitions raise similar issues and seek similar orders. Therefore we order that the seven petitions are consolidated.
"The ending of the matter will therefore read as Raila Odinga and Martha Karua as the first petitioners," she announced.
John Njoroge Kamau will be the second petitioner while Youth Advocacy Africa and Peter Kihika will be the third petitioner.
On the other hand, Khelif Khalifa, George Osewe, and Grace Kamau will be the fourth petitioner. Okiya Omtata, Victor Okuna, and John Maina will be the sixth petitioner while Julia Nyokabi Chege, Joseph Mutua and Simon Mwaura Njega will be the seventh petitioner.
The decision by the Supreme Court came after it was announced two petitions were struck out earlier in the morning.
"After we dealt with the preliminaries two petitions were struck out, petition number E006 and E009 and the rulings were delivered, followed by a summary showing the reasons why they were struck out.
The main petitioner - Raila has been allocated three hours while the supporting petitioners were allocated 30 minutes each.
IEBC commissioners who dissented the declaration of Ruto as President-elect - Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Irene Cherop, and Justus Nyang'aya were allocated an hour to make their submissions as the Court included them as respondents.
Koome directed that the lead counsel of the four will have 15 minutes each.
On the other hand, legal representatives of IEBC and Chairperson Wafula Chebukati were given three hours which will be shared among them.
Ruto's lawyers will also have three hours to give their responses before the Court. Attorney General Paul Kihara was accorded 30 minutes.
