Kenya Supreme Court unable to hear case seeking to delay elections News
Kenya Supreme Court unable to hear case seeking to delay elections

The Supreme Court of Kenya [official website] ruled [text, PDF] Wednesday that it was unable to hear a case in which the petitioners are seeking to delay [BBC report] the upcoming presidential election.

The court was unable to hear the case because it did not have the required quorum of justices present. There are a total of seven judges on the Kenyan Supreme Court. One of the justices was not able to attend due to their bodyguard being shot and wounded on Tuesday. One justice is out of the country for treatment, while another justice was unable to get a flight back to Nairobi in time for the trial. Two other justices were listed as only not being “able to come to court.” This left only two justices at the court at the time of the trial.

The new presidential election is schedule to take place on October 26 at 6:00 AM local time. The election is necessary after the Kenyan Supreme Court invalidated [JURIST report] the previous election results in September. The new election has triggered many protests in the country. The Kenyan High Court lifted [JURIST report] a ban on the protests last week.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.