JAMES MWANGI MATHENGE & MOSES KINYUA MWANGI V. CHARLES MWAI & ATTORNEY GENERAL

RULING OF THE COURT

On 10^th August 2005, James Mwangi Mathenge (suing as the legal representative of the Estate of Moses Kinyua Mwangi – the deceased) had applied to a single Judge of this Court under Rule 4 of the Court’s Rules for an order that the time within which to file and serve a notice of appeal and a record of appeal be extended for him. That application was heard by a single Judge of the Court (TUNOI, J.A.) and was dismissed by the learned Judge by his Ruling dated and delivered on 3^rd November, 2005. The applicant has now referred the decision of the learned single Judge to a full bench of the Court and that is the subject of this ruling.

It is now accepted that in exercising his unfettered discretion conferred on him by Rule 4, a single member of the Court is really acting on behalf of the full Court and the full Court can only interfere with his exercise of discretion where it can be shown that in coming to his decision, the single Judge took into account an irrelevant fac…