The Judiciary has revealed how a technical error prevented petitioners from filing their case against former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during his removal from office in October.
This disclosure comes nearly three months after the incident, which prompted three complainants to write a letter of protest to Chief Registrar Winfridah Mokaya and Chief Justice Martha Koome.
In their letter, the petitioners sought explanations for the failure of the electronic filing system, which hindered their attempts to submit a case challenging Gachagua’s ouster.
The petitioners questioned why the e-filing system malfunctioned on the same day Parliament approved Prof. Kithure Kindiki as Gachagua’s replacement. They argued that the system failure, coupled with the refund of their payment, prevented their case from progressing in court, undermining their efforts to halt the parliamentary process.
They accused the technical issues of being a deliberate act to deny them justice, suggesting that the failures were orchestrated to block timely judicial review of their case.
“We believe the system’s malfunction was a deliberate attempt to prevent our case from reaching the judge on time, thereby influencing the approval process,” their petition stated.
The letter also raised concerns about how the refund, involving Safaricom, the Judiciary, and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), was processed without the payer’s consent, alleging it was part of an intentional effort to obstruct justice.
The petitioners explained how they tried making another payment at 9:20 AM, and although the receipt was issued ten minutes later, they claimed the delay raised further suspicion.
In response, six weeks later, Chief Registrar Mokaya stated that a “thorough investigation” revealed the events of that day were caused by a technical error.
She explained that the e-filing system is integrated with the Judiciary’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which manages all payment processes, including receipts.
The three systems, she said, are also linked to external payment platforms such as KCB and M-Pesa, with their efficiency dependent on uninterrupted communication between them.
“Our findings indicate that on the night of October 17, the integrated system used by KCB to communicate with the Judiciary experienced a mechanical error, preventing our ERP from processing payments.
“As a result, all M-Pesa payments made during this period were refunded because our system could not access them for approval,” Mokaya explained.
By Kenyans