Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi Jiir and his deputy Ahmed Muhumed Abdi can now serve their term in office unimpeded after the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal challenging their win.
But they owe their legal win to technicalities that consistently knocked out the petition by their 2022 challenger Hassan Mohamed Adam.
It was only the High Court that exhaustively considered the merits of the election petition and made a determination.
It upheld the election of the duo, which was a return of Jiir who was the first governor of the Asal county.
But at the Court of Appeal, the duo's streak of survival on technicality started.
The appellate court's July 2023 decision was mainly grounded on technicality as the three-judge bench did not consider the merits of the case.
They only gave their verdict on a preliminary application that questioned whether the appeal was properly laid before the court. They held that the notice of appeal was not valid, vitiating the entire process.
"...it is our finding that there is no valid appeal before the court as only a proper notice of appeal can trigger an appeal. We are in agreement with the respondents’ argument that the notice of appeal filed was a nullity as it purports to be a notice of appeal filed under the Election Petition Rules," the judgement reads.
It goes on: "By parity of reasoning, it follows that no notice of appeal was filed in this matter and there is no jurisdiction for the court to entertain the appeal and/or deign to extend time for filing the notice of appeal.... Accordingly, we hereby strike out this appeal and award costs thereof to the respondents. It is so ordered."
Adam, not satisfied, scaled up the legal wrestling to the Supreme court, but was not successful.
Again, the court threw out the petition on Friday on the basis of a technicality, finding that it did not have proper jurisdiction to entertain it.
It is a long-held maxim that to a court, jurisdiction is everything, and without it, the judges down their tools.
When Adam filed his appealing petition on July 31, 2023, the governor and his deputy filed a preliminary objection, challenging the jurisdiction of the court, and the court ruled to hear them together.
On Friday, Supreme Court Judges Martha Koome, her deputy Philemona Mwilu, judges Njoki Ndungu, Isaac Lenaola, and William Ouko upheld the Court of Appeal's decision.
They agreed with the preliminary objection that the case was not properly before the court, literally taking cue from the Court of Appeal’s determination.
“Having considered the appeal, the notice of motion and the parties’ respective submissions thereto, as advanced by their respective advocates on record, we find no justifiable reasons to interfere with the ruling of the Court of Appeal. Accordingly, the appellant’s appeal is hereby struck out with costs to the respondents,” they said in a summary judgement.
They said they will give detailed reasoning on notice.
Worse for Adam, after the three loses, the court ordered that he pays the governor and his deputy the costs of the suit.