Prof. Hellen Sambili. Photo/FILE
By NATION REPORTER
Posted Tuesday, February 14 2012 at 22:30
Posted Tuesday, February 14 2012 at 22:30
A court has dismissed an application by some members of the United Democratic Movement to stop the political parties’ tribunal from handling its leadership wrangles.
Nairobi judge Mohammed Warsame ruled that there was no evidence showing that the tribunal allowed its processes and procedures to be manipulated, abused or misused by the complainants.
The dispute arose when UDM chairman Gen (Rtd) John Koech lodged a complaint against a group of party members at the political parties tribunal claiming that they wanted to change the party’s leadership without due process. (READ: Call for polls deepens factions in UDM party)
Preliminary objection
An MP allied to the party and four other officials lost a preliminary objection to the tribunal mediating the dispute and subsequently moved to the High Court to challenge the decision.
Mogotio MP Hellen Sambili and party members Joseph Lagat, Nathaniel Chebelon, Moses Cheboi and Philip Rotino submitted that the tribunal was seeking to punish them for complying with the registrar’s directive to have the list of party officials.
However, Mr Justice Warsame dismissed their arguments, saying that a public authority derives its power from statutes and may lawfully adopt procedures without abdicating its general remits.
The judge ruled that whenever any person or body has legal authority to make decisions, it must be left to perform its statutory function unless there is evidence to show that it exceeded its limit or committed an error in law.
He ruled that the complaint raised before the tribunal was not incompetent and was not an abuse of the process of law as established under the Political Parties Act.
He said the tribunal is mandated to determine political parties’ disputes and such a task cannot be claimed to be an infringement of any person’s constitutional rights or a breach of the Political Parties Act.
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