MACHARIA NJOROGE V. GAKURE KURIA

RULING OF THE COURT

MACHARIA NJOROGE, hereinafter referred to as the “applicant”, sought a reference to the full court from the decision of a learned single Judge of this Court, the Honourable the Chief Justice, made on 4th November, 2004 whereby the learned single Judge refused to grant an application made by the applicant for extension of time within which to file a notice of appeal and subsequent thereto a record of appeal to challenge the ruling and order ensuing from the decision of the High Court of Kenya at Nyeri (Juma, J.) delivered on 25th February, 2003.

It is trite, but we reiterate here, that under rule 4 of the Rules of this Court the learned single Judge was mandated to exercise judicially a discretion, which was whether or not by his order he should extend the time within which to lodge an appeal and, if he decided to do so, on what terms he should do so. It is a wide discretion and almost unfettered, for the only constraint imposed by the rule is that the terms should be…