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Kenya's judiciary vows to speed up handling party elections disputes

Xinhua, April 13, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Kenyan Judiciary on Thursday promised to expeditiously handle any disputes arising from the political parties' primaries that got underway across the country.

Chief Justice, David Maraga, said the judiciary's preparedness to handle election disputes has been ongoing and that all judicial officers have been trained to enhance the capacity of judicial officers in handling of electoral disputes.

"I have gazetted 92 special magistrates to deal with electoral offences and we have also completed the recruitment of two additional members of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, bringing to seven members as provided for by the Political Parties Act," Justice Maraga told journalists in Nairobi.

His remarks came as political parties' began their nominations across the country on Thursday. The party nominations have in the past been marked with violence and chaos.

In some party strongholds, winning during the nomination stage is as good as already being elected, a state of affairs that make the competition for the party ticket a do-or-die matter for the competing politicians.

Political party representatives have however signed a code of conduct with the electoral body binding them to uphold peace and respect for the rule of law during the primaries.

Justice Maraga also announced that he will assign six judges of the high court who will exclusively and expeditiously preside over appeals that might arise from the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal.

The Chairman of the Tribunal, Kyalo Mbobu, urged the parties to have an internal structure for dispute resolution even as they consider recourse to the committee's dispute resolution mechanism.

"Political parties will be the first point of call in the resolution of any disputes arising from party primaries. It is only where intra-party dispute resolution mechanism fails that aggrieved parties may approach the tribunal," Mbobu noted.

He said that given that the members of the tribunal are seven, they will sit as two separate benches of three members each in Nairobi. The general election will be held on Aug. 8. Endit