Chief Justice Martha Koome on Friday, July 15 assured election observers of Judiciary’s readiness to handle electoral disputes.
The CJ highlighted key preparatory efforts the Judiciary has made to prepare the courts for election petitions.
Moreover, CJ Koome reported that she had gazetted 120 special magistrates in February to increase the capacity of courts to handle electoral disputes arising from the August General Election.
The Chief Justice who hosted the European Union Election Observation Mission to Kenya at the Supreme Court, further said the Judiciary Committee on Elections (JCE) has mounted training session for judges, judicial officers and staff.
“We are concluding the training of Deputy Registrars today, they are the ones who will be supervising the processes of scrutiny and recount of ballots where courts make orders to that effect,” she said.
In addition, Koome noted that the courts were finalizing and issuing the last round of pre-election dispute judgements today.
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According to the CJ, this will allow IEBC to complete printing ballot papers for the electoral contests where embattled candidates had contested IEBC’s decision to lock them out.
Furthermore, Koome noted that the Judiciary had identified special Election Offenses Courts to hear matters arising from hate speech in areas identified as hot spots by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.
“I issued a directive to Judicial Officers in February to hear and determine such cases within four (4) months. Such expeditious determination of these matters will have a deterrence effect on the political class,” states Koome.
