Kenyan court upholds general elections date in March 2013

A Kenyan court on Tuesday upheld a previous ruling by a lower court that the country's next general elections should be held on March 4, 2013. The Court of Appeal said that the date set out by the country's electoral body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should be followed. Four of the five Court of Appeal bench sitting in Nairobi ruled that the elections should be held 60 days after the dissolution of Parliament, set for January 15, 2013, while one judge dissented arguing that the next elections should be held on or before January 15, 2013. Court of Appeal president Justice Erastus Githinji made the majority judgment which Justices Kalpana Rawal, David Maranga and Hannah Okwengu agreed with while Justice Martha Koome dissented. Kenyan political parties are currently positioning themselves for the first-ever election since the passing of a new Kenyan constitution in 2010. The new constitution was created as a tool to avoid a repeat of the violence that was also blamed on the lack of a transparent political structure and credible state institutions, including the courts. The appointment of a new Chief Justice, the new electoral chief and several other independent officeholders, were amongst measures taken to restore confidence in the state institutions destroyed by ethnic biases.