JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
1. On 17th June, 2011, the 1st respondent called for elections of grower and miller representatives to the Kenya Sugar Board. The appellant, being one of the unsuccessful contestants, was dissatisfied with the conduct of the elections and the results. By way of a plaint filed in the High Court of Kenya at Bungoma, the appellant urged the court to nullify the elections of the Nzoia Zone and order a repeat of the said elections in that zone.
2. Before the suit could be heard, the appellant instituted an application seeking a temporary injunction to restrain the respondents from gazetting the results of the elections. The respondents raised a preliminary objection regarding the jurisdiction of the court to hear the appellant’s suit. They contended that the forum for resolution of the dispute raised by the appellant was the Sugar Arbitration Tribunal set up under section 31 of the Sugar Act (now repealed).
3. The preliminary objection was upheld with the result that the…