BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
Kenya judicial staff association has suffered a major blow after the High court stopped it’s election slated for December 21,2019.
Justice Weldon Korir suspended the election pending hearing and determination of a petition lodged by ten members of the association challenging the new election rules published by the member of executive committee.
The orders comes after on December 13 this year,Justice Korir issued an order restraining the said executive members from purporting to implement the newly published election rules contained in the notice issued by Milicent Owino pending the hearing and determination of the case.
Ten members of Kenya judicial staff association have moved to court seeking orders restraining the executive members, Sango Maewa, Millicent Owino and Linet Murugi from implementing the newly published election rules contained in the notices issued by Millicent dated November 26 2019 pending hearing and determination of the case.
The petitioners also want the court to issue temporary injunction restraining the said executives either through themselves or their agents from implementing the newly published rules.
Further they want the court to compel the said executives to provide members register and books of account to the applicant for scrutiny before the court or before the election of the subject association is conducted.
They also want a declaration issued that Maewa and Millicent are ineligible to contest in the forth coming election for another term as they have already served two consecutive terms as prescribed by KJSA constitution.
The association also want an injunction be issued compelling Maewa through his agents or associates from interfering or preventing the petitioners, associates or their agents from accessing venue of the association’s annual general meeting.
The petitioner include Abdikadir Mohamed, Caroline Kajuju, Wairimu Rwenji, Nancy Simiyu, Moses Nzomo, Martin Jagongo, Mohamed Birik, Francis Jackson, Stanford Mwangi and Lindamarine Osudwa.
They also want a declaration that the rules of election issued vide the notice signed by Owino providing for new election ruled dated November 26 2019 is illegal and therefore null.
Owino issued a notice to selected social media forums calling for expression of interest for members to vie in the forthcoming national executive council slated for the next general meeting.
“The petitioners are not members or in the event they are members of such forums, they were removed by the administrators at the time of the issuance of the said notice,” reads the court papers.
They argued that persuant to the notice dated November 26 this year, the respondents have called for election of new KJSA NEC officials on December 21,2019 alongside the annual general meeting of the subject association based on the new election rules.
Further, they said the notice purports to introduce new rules of elections and legibility for a candidate for elections contrary to the provisions of article 8(b) of the KJSA constitution that gives such powers to the general assembly to provide for the policy and general elections for the association and therefore election rules constitute the said policies and such powers have, at no time been donated to the National executive committee.
Maewa who is the current chairman of the association has previously used unorthodox means to run the association and use of ” men in black” hired goons to reign terror on opponents and prevent members from accessing the venue of annual general meeting and therefore giving the petitioners who have expressed interest in the vacant seats of the NEC of the association reason to doubt their security and fairness of the electoral process.
They claim that the said rules are aimed at locking them out of the contest for the elective positions and allow the election to proceed while riddled with illegalities.
