Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto argued that the 5 judge High Court judges who declared the Building Bridges Initiative as null and void used Wikipedia as an authority in their ruling.
Ogeto is representing the government and President Uhuru Kenyatta in the Court of Appeal hearing and hopes to convince the appellate judges to overturn the lower court's judgement.
While presenting his case on Tuesday, June 29, the Solicitor General stated that the five judges, Justices Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Chacha Mwita, and Teresia Matheka relied on Wikipedia to define popular initiative. The judges were further accused of ruling that the popular initiative is an anti-government drive.
“They claimed that popular initiatives are anti-government - this was their finding. And for this regrettable claim, they relied on Wikipedia. They resorted to Wikipedia as an authority.
"Wikipedia describes itself that it is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit - it is manipulated and cannot be relied on as a source," Ogeto presented his inference.
He further pleaded with the court to restore the people's sovereign will. Through his appeals, he invited the honourable court to affirm the constitution as enacted by Kenya.
Ogeto argued that the five judges rewrote the Constitution, disregarded clear laws to arrive at their decision, effectively amended the Constitution, disregarded decisions made by colleagues in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, disenfranchised millions of Kenyan voters by ignoring the popular initiative through personalised attacks against Uhuru and came up with unfounded conclusions.
These conclusions included an unprecedented finding that a President can be sued in a personal capacity for official acts and work duties.
"We will demonstrate that our Constitution has no place for the application of basic structure documents. The constitution clearly stipulates how the law was written and can only be passed and amended by referendum and Parliament and judges have no amendment power
"They imposed limitations of Presidential limits - yet he has immunity from civil proceedings," Ogeto argued.
Uhuru and pro-BBI proponents led by ODM leader Raila Odinga are hopeful that they will win the case and amend the Constitution.
There was drama when one lawyer - Elisha Ongoya - was at pains to explain the name of his client and he had to search through an array of documents. However, Court of Appeal President Justice Daniel Musinga cut him short and asked him to handle crucial matters as a professional lawyer, sparking laughter in the court.
The BBI case will be heard between June 29 and July 2. The seven judges hearing the case include Musinga, Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Hannah Okwengu, Patrick Kiage, Gatembu Kairu, Fatuma Sichale and Francis Tuiyott.
