GROUP QUESTIONS THE LEGITIMACY OF THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT

By JILLO KADIDA
DAILY NATION

December 8 2008

Gathangu and NGO base claims over poll results on Kriegler report

The High Court has been asked to declare the election of President Mwai Kibaki and all MPs invalid.

A politician and a non-governmental organisation have moved to court seeking a declaration that the 2007 General Election was flawed and therefore it was not possible to determine who won the presidential, parliamentary and civic elections.

Mr Njeru Gathangu and Credo based their prayers on the findings of the Kriegler report which said that it was impossible to establish the true or reliable results in both Presidential and parliamentary elections.

The two are saying that since the Government, acting on that same Kriegler report, wants to send home the Electoral Commission officials because they are responsible for the flaws in the polls then that is reason enough to declare that the President and MPs are holding office illegally.

And as a result, they said President Kibaki and all his MPs have no moral authority to call for the disbandment of ECK and resignation of its commissioners.

Following the recommendations of the Kriegler report, a Bill is due in parliament to pave way for the disbandment of ECK and replacing it with an Interim Independent Electoral Commission.

The interim body is supposed to be in place for a period of fifteen months.

Democratic society

This decision to replace ECK with an interim body, the two said, will immensely affect the gains made in realising a democratic society and create constitutional crisis.

Secondly the two said that the National Assembly, under the provisions of the Constitution, has no authority to amend the law to disband ECK and strip its commissioners the security of tenure.

Mr Gathangu believes that as currently constituted the parliament has no moral authority to debate the Bill to abolish a constitutionally established body.

The case is coming up for hearing this morning.

COMMENTS:
Submitted by Hillaryio
Posted December 09, 2008

I am sure all that Gathangu wants is some publicity that will probably keep him alive in the political real come 2012. Otherwise, what he is fighting for is a waste of time and money on his side. Too bad that nobody will take him seriously and the publicity might not bear fruits after all. Good luck, Gathangu, dealing with these kind of cases.

Submitted by Newshawk
Posted December 09, 2008 0

Njeru Gathangu must be supoorted by any right thinking Kenyan.If the ECK is sick thro and thro,then at best, as a bad chef, there is no way their product would marked 'consumable' by KEBS!Not even 'Valid until 2012' We need a change done by somebody else not the current crop of politicians!