LSK Vice Chairperson Lilian Renee Omondi said they were concerned with reports of voters selling their official documents before the elections.
“Buying or selling of voters and national identity cards ahead of elections is an offence under the Elections Act,” Omondi said.
She warned that the electoral offences attracted a fine of Sh1 million or a jail term of up to six years or both.
Omondi said that Article 38(3) of the Constitution provided for voting rights while the Elections Act empowered registered citizens to cast their votes.
The LSK Vice Chairperson urged registered voters to exercise their Constitutional rights by turning out to cast their votes on Monday.
She said that the recently concluded mock elections showed that one voter would take eight minutes to cast votes on the six leadership positions.
“Voters should exercise patience in queues and should not be discouraged by the waiting period,” Omondi said.
The Vice Chairperson also called on voters not to be intimidated by security officers deployed in parts of the country.
“We insist on peaceful and democratic transitional elections and believe that police officers being deployed in suspected hot spots will guarantee security,” Omondi said.
She said that inciters to violence must be arraigned in court in a bid to avoid a repeat of post-election violence witnessed in the last General Elections.
She said that lawyers were ready to handle election petitions that may arise after the much awaited polls.
Omondi said that LSK had trained nearly 5,000 Advocates of the High Court in new electoral laws and rules on election petitions.
“We have worked with the Judiciary to ensure that post-electoral disputes are heard and determined as fast as possible,” Omondi said.
She said that amendments to the Elections Act allowed lawyers to file applications to declare an aspirant winner after successful election petitions.
She said that the Lawyers and Judiciary had completed trainings on The Supreme Court (Presidential Election Petition) Rules 2013 and Election Petition Rules.
“The new rules require that Presidential Election Petitions are heard and determined within 14 days after being filed at the Supreme Court,” Omondi said.
Omondi welcomed the latest amendment of the Elections Act to now enable courts to declare election losers as winners unlike before when they could only order for by-elections.
“The new rules on election petitions have introduced pre-trial conferencing where Judges and Advocates would agree in advance on the number of witnesses to be called,” Omondi said.
Under pre-trial conferencing, Judges and Magistrates will ensure lawyers tell them in advance the number of witnesses they intend to call and agree on time to complete the suites.
“Judges hearing election petitions will not be charged with other responsibilities until they determine cases before them,” Omondi said. -The Standard
