Nairobi — A petitioner has filed a case in court seeking to halt the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission's (IEBC) directive for political parties to comply with the two third gender rule.

The lawyer Adrian Kamotho in his lawsuit claimed the electoral commission never undertook any public participation prior to the issuance of the notice.

He argued in his petition that public participation as required under Articles 10 and 88 (5) of the Constitution.

Due to this provision,Kamotho insisted that the Wafula Chebukati-led commission has adopted an erroneous arithmetical approach to the proper realization of the two-thirds gender principle.

"Whereas some political parties have exceeded the threshold of male nominees, other parties have exceeded the threshold for female nominees thus necessitating a more meticulous approach to the gender balancing challenge, as opposed to the simplistic and rigid stance preferred by the Respondent," he argues

Political parties have until May 9 to submit lists of aspirants that comply with the two-thirds gender principle or risk being disqualified in the August polls.

He claims if the court does not intervene then IEBC notice, referenced as IEBC/CORR/PP/2022, which controversially seeks to lockout leading political parties from participation in the August 2022 general elections, could foment a

humongous political crisis which could trigger civil unrest considering the emotive nature of Kenyan politics.

"Having submitted the names of nominated candidates to the Respondent, it would be a violation of section 13 (2) of the Elections Act, 2011, for political parties to alter the names except in the event of the death, resignation or incapacity of the nominated candidate or of the violation of the electoral code of conduct by the nominated candidate candidate,"reads court papers