The 7 bench judge has just announced that the verdict by the judges will take longer because each judge has written their ruling and it will take fairly long to read the judgment.
This shows that the judges were not unanimous in agreeing or opposing the petition and it is only fair to give everyone a chance to read out his judgment where the majority opinion will carry the day.
The ruling has a huge impact in terms of jurisprudence and political matrix. BBI will shape our politics and determine how our politics will be played in the remaining few months to the next general elections.
The former prime minister Raila Odinga has already indicated that if they lose the appeal, they will not escalate the matter further to the supreme court and instead he will focus on winning the coming 2022 presidential elections.
This shows that the Building Bridges initiative is not a do-or-die activity. This is good for Kenya because it means that the promoters of the initiative are ready to accept the court verdict even if it doesn’t favor them.
The report has some good things for this country like for example the issue of increasing money to counties, tax holidays for graduates, and increased representation to people that are under-represented by increasing the number of constituencies by an additional 70.
Creating a judicial ombudsman was controversial and petitioners argued that it was an effort by the executive to control the judiciary and take away their independence which could have been catastrophic.
All the issues put forth by various litigants in the case will today be addressed by the 7 judge bench and the matter will be put to rest.
If the court of appeal overturns the high court decision, then the IEBC will have to prepare for a referendum before the general elections which looks unlikely due to the limited time available.