The High Court has this evening declined to halt the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) elections slated for Thursday, February 29, 2024.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi of Milimani High Court has rejected a last-minute attempt by Advocate Yashim Butende to halt the must-awaited polls of the lawyers across the country.
However, Mugambi ordered the case by Butende challenging the election to be heard on March 3, 2024.
This means now the election by over 20,000 lawyers in Kenya will go on tomorrow uninterrupted.
At the same time, Chief Justice Martha Koome has also issued a memo to all courts across the country to encourage advocates to participate in the polls tomorrow.
“Advocates are required to vote at their designated principal places of work. This might interfere with court sittings in matters where parties are represented by advocates. In this regard, courts may indulge advocates where necessary to enable them to exercise their voting obligations, ” CJ Koome states in the internal memo.
The lawyers are expected to vote on Thursday morning to elect their next leaders, after four months of campaigns which ended on Tuesday.
The election is seen as a possible turning point for the LSK as tomorrow’s polls will see a new council elected by lawyers to replace the current team led by President Eric Theuri whose two-year term is ending.
Faith Odhiambo, who is serving as Theuri’s deputy, is running to replace him.
She is battling for the seat with the society’s former Vice President Caroline Kamende as well as current council member Njoki Mboce, former council member Berhard Ng’etich and city lawyer Peter Wanyama.
Besides the seat of presidency and vice presidency, other seats up for grabs are the council membership seats and those representing the regions at the national council.
Also to be conducted tomorrow is the vote for the Male Representative to the powerful Judicial Service Commission (JSC) as the term for current representative Macharia Njeru is expiring in May.
Theuri is seeking to replace Njeru, and he is fighting it out with Omwanza Ombati.
The elections are expected to be overseen by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and those eligible to take part in the elections are lawyers with valid practice certificates.
Koome has admitted in excess of 2,500 young advocates to the bar this year alone, making them a potent voting bloc that will no doubt tilt the scale.
