Election year puzzle: Five cases, 13 judges and different decisions The Constitution anchors elections to the second Tuesday of August in every fifth year. News 18 min ago Listen

The High Court found found that there was a conflict between Article 177(1)(a), which required MCA elections on the second Tuesday of August in every fifth year, and Article 177(4), which expressly gave county assemblies a five-year term.

The litigation, spanning 2015 to 2026, has produced competing interpretations of how the constitutional election clock should be counted with different courts and judges being asked to explain what “the second Tuesday in August in every fifth year” actually means.

He says the Malindi court “overly grammartises” the phrase “in the fifth year” while overlooking constitutional history and the five-year electoral cycle reflected in the constitution-making process.