NARC Kenya party leader Martha Karua on Tuesday, January 18, stormed out of the hearing of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) case at the Supreme Court.
Taking to her social media, the Senior Counsel stated that she walked out after the Court resolved to exclude their clients from highlighting their submissions.
According to Karua, the Supreme Court judges reasoned that because their clients had joined the case in the High Court as amici curiae, they would remain as such before the apex court.
Amici (singular - amicus or amicus curiae) is regarded as a friend of the court or one who assists the court by providing information or advice in matters of law and fact. Amici are treated as interested or neutral parties.
She argued that the court had turned them into respondents and thereby locking them out of the hearing.
"We walked out of Supreme Court BBI appeal after the court made a decision to exclude our clients the 74th,75th &76th respondents from highlighting their submissions. The Supreme Court reasoned that because our clients joined the case in the High court as amici curiae (friends of the court) they remain so before the Supreme Court yet the appellants are named our clients as respondents," read Karua post on her Twitter account.
She further noted that they had already submitted an application for consolidation seeking to be allocated more time- but Karua claimed that the court treated her and the team as respondents.
"Our position is that we were named as respondents the Court of appeal and now in the Supreme Court and we participated as respondents in the Supreme Court in December 2021 when we successfully made an application to consolidate the appeals.
"We therefore submitted that the supreme court cannot turn around and lock us out having entertained us as respondents in previous case In any event no litigant or interested party should be locked out of hearing or treated in a discriminatory manner especially in a court of last resort," she noted.
During the BBI hearing, the Senior Counsel had called out the Supreme Court judges, advocating for equality of the allocation of time when making submissions.
"Our position also is that regarding every party before the court including interested parties, with this being the highest court, nobody should be shut out. Everybody should be given a hearing," she addressed the bench led by Chief Justice Martha Koome.
The BBI appeal case hearing is set to go on for three days and the final judgement will be delivered on Thursday, January 20.
