Attorney-General Paul Kihara on Tuesday, May 18 withdrew an application to the High Court seeking to suspend the application of the recent controversial Ruling annulling the BBI.
Kihara wrote a letter to the Deputy Registrar stating that his office will instead seek relief at the Court of Appeal.
The earlier application by the AG to have the recent contentious ruling on BBI stayed had been certified as urgent with the courts with the court stating thus: “The court will give a ruling based on the written materials placed before it by email on Wednesday, May 26,” the court ruled.
Kihara and a team of lawyers are burning the midnight oil as they seek to overturn the recent decision by justices Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Jairus Ngaah, Teresia Matheka and Chacha Mwita where they termed BBI unconstitutional.
Petitioners who had moved to court seeking to block BBI crusade had argued that BBI referendum bill was not the will of people but based on the changing political and socio-economic interests.
The AG then filed an application seeking stay orders of the execution of the appeal – arguing that he would suffer prejudice if the stay orders were not granted.
The AG had filed the application for stay under a certificate of claiming that due to the immense public interest, it was in the interest of justice for the Court of Appeal to stay the implementation of the orders pending hearing and determination of the case.
Other lawyers who will be fighting in AG Kihara’s corner include Arnold Oginga and Paul Mwangi for the BBI task force steering committee, the BBI National Secretariat. Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga had also hinted at filing an appeal.
It is not clear why Kihara had a sudden change of heart – but one thing is clear – the battle of wits has just began.