Case questioning legality of CDF to go to full hearing
What you need to know:
- The judges said the application by the board was in bad faith considering its timing.
- The board wanted the appeal filed by two lobbies struck out on grounds that the record of appeal is incomplete and therefore invalid.
A petition that is questioning the legality of the Constituency Development Fund will proceed to full hearing at the Supreme Court after the judges dismissed an application by the CDF Board to strike it out on a technicality.
The judges said the application by the board was in bad faith considering its timing.
The board wanted the appeal filed by two lobbies struck out on grounds that the record of appeal is incomplete and therefore invalid.
Through lawyer Isaac Miencha, the board argued that the case will cause miscarriage of justice to the other parties as it lacked copies of the Court of Appeal proceedings that were recorded by retired judge GBM Kariuki.
Mr Miencha added that the lobby groups had also not sought the court’s leave to exclude the proceedings of the retired judge.
But the five-judge bench led by Chief Justice David Maraga ruled that the board was aware of the challenges the two groups had faced in their attempt to get the proceedings and that the issue had been raised with the court’s deputy registrar.
The appellants want the Supreme Court to declare the CDF Act unconstitutional as it assigns functions that are the exclusive responsibility of the counties to the national government.
