Kenyan AG challenges E.African court powers

The Kenyan attorney-general has challenged the East African Court of Justice of its jurisdiction as the regional court started on Friday to hear a case concerning a Kenyan parliamentary matter.

Kenyan Attorney-General Amos Wako said in Arusha where the East African Court of Justice seats that the court has no jurisdiction to hear a case concerning a sovereign state though it is a member of the East African Community.

The court is designed to be the jurisdiction arm of the community.

He added that the case concerning a Kenyan parliamentary election should be dismissed by the court.

The East African Court of Justice set Friday as the date for hearing the case brought to it by Kenya's ruling National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) about the country's election of its members to the East African parliament.

A ruling will be made before Nov. 29, according to reports reaching here on Saturday.

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is scheduled to swear in its newly-elected lawmakers from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

NARC has brought to the East African regional court its dispute with the Kenyan parliament about a parliamentary poll result.

All the parties within NARC have jointly filed the lawsuit before the East African Court of Justice, seeking to stop the swear-in of the newly-elected members from Kenya to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).

The NARC suit claimed that the five NARC members endorsed by the Kenyan Parliament were not those submitted by the coalition itself.

The Kenyan attorney-general said that the matter about the validity of the Kenyan nominees to the EALA should be left to Kenyan courts.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda -- the three member states to the East African Community -- each elects nine of its lawmakers to sit in the EALA.

Inaugurated in November 2001 as the legislative arm of the regional economic integration bloc known as the East African Community, the EALA also has five ex-officio members. These include three East African cooperation ministers from the three member states, the secretary-general and the counsel to the Ease African Community.

The NARC lawsuit only challenged the identities of the five members from the coalition. It did not touch upon the identities of the four remaining members elected from other political parties sitting in the Kenyan parliament.

Source: Xinhua