JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
The petition by the appellant, RICHARD NCHAPI LEIYAGU, challenging the election of the third respondent, MATHEW KIDEME LIMPURKEL as the Member of the National Assembly for Laikipia North Constituency following the March 2013 general elections, has mutated into this appeal after surviving, literally by a whisker, at the High Court.
The petition, which was filed on 10th April, 2013 in the High Court at Nyeri, was scheduled, with the consent of the parties, to be heard from 10th to 13th June, 2013. On the first day of the hearing, only the respondents attended court; the appellant and his advocates did not. After a short adjournment and an unsuccessful effort to get the appellant’s advocate in court, the High Court (Wakiaga, J) dismissed the petition for non-attendance.
Immediately, the appellant applied to the High Court for reinstatement of the petition, principally on the ground that he and his advocates had erroneously entered in their diaries that the hearing of t…