Reprieve for party-hopping politicians as the High Court hands them more time

Politicians are at liberty to defect from one party to another until 45 days to the August polls.

This comes after the High Court yesterday suspended implementation of a law that stops politicians from hopping from one party to another in the run up to the General Election. The Council of Governors moved to court claiming that the new election laws contain an unconstitutional section that stops party hopping within 120 days to the polls.

Justice John Mativo yesterday issued an order suspending Section 28 of the new elections law on a temporary basis.

“Pending the hearing and determination of this case an order is hereby issued staying the implementation of Section 28 of the Elections Act No 24 of 2011 as amended by the provisions of the Elections Amendment Act 2017,” he ruled.

The judge directed the county bosses to give copies of the case documents to the attorney-general and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which they had sued, and set the hearing date on March 9.

Until the sued parties respond to the case, a hearing is held and a final verdict is issued; the net effect of the ruling means that the law which had stopped politicians from party hopping cannot be implemented. For this reason, those who were intending to change parties have more time to do so hence reason to celebrate the reprieve granted by the temporary order.

According to the county bosses, the new law locks out those with genuine reasons for defecting after the 120 days deadline. Through their lawyer Peter Wanyama, they claimed that cleaning up political parties cannot be achieved by unreasonably locking out others in an unfair manner and that  the 45 days window period  as initially provided for by the law was sufficient for choosing those to run in the elections.

“The mischief created by the amendment creates a lock-up of names and limits genuine and warranted political party defections,” Mr Wanyama said.