A three-judge bench yesterday temporarily blocked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission from swearing-in hundreds of nominated members of county assemblies.

The event scheduled for today was stopped pending ruling of a petition filed by the Gender Commission seeking to bar IEBC from using nomination lists produced by political parties. The commission has accused parties of failing to comply with the constitutional gender requirements.

But the order by justices Isaac Lenaola, David Majanja and Mumbi Ngugi does not stop the swearing-in of county representatives who were elected on March 4.

In the case, the gender commission alleges that the nominations did not meet a constitutional rule that requires affirmative action to be applied on vulnerable groups.

The commission claims party chiefs have dished out special seats which are meant for special groups to cronies and friends on personal ,corrupt  and political grounds without regard to the purposes for which such special seats were created.

NGEC argues that by allocating the seats to cronies, political parties have violated the constitutional rights of women, persons with disability, youth, marginalised groups, minority and other groupings whose interests are protected under the constitution.

The commission says IEBC has a duty to supervise the creation of party lists which will from the basis of the allocation of special seats.

The application has been supported by several groups, including the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya. The groups say IEBC has a duty to ensure full compliance with the constitutional benchmarks as stipulated in article 90(2) (a) (b) and (c) of the constitution.

Article 90 provides for the provision of special seats under article 97, 98, and 177 on the basis of proportional representation using lists created by political parties.

The groups argues that the commission has in breach of the constitution abandoned its duty on the creation of the party list.  IEBC and the Attorney General yesterday argued that nothing has been placed before curt to prove the claims.The matter resumes on March 25.