Poll petition against Mwakwere thrown out

Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere is a happy man after a petition challenging his election as Matuga MP was dismissed.

Two judges agreed that the returning officer during the election, Mr Ali Maalim Hassan was not personally served with the court papers.

Judges Samuel Bosire and Onyango Otieno agreed that Mr Juma Mwekesi, the challenger failed to properly serve Mr Hassan with his petition.

However, Mr Justice Erastus Githinji disagreed with his colleagues and ruled that both the minister and Mr Hassan were properly served.

Although all the judges agreed that Mr Mwakwere was properly served and dismissed his appeal, the Electoral Commission of Kenya through Mr Hassan saved the day when their appeal was allowed.

Mr Mwakwere was ordered to pay Mr Mwekesi the cost of the suit, while Mr Mwekesi will pay Mr Hassan’s.

Meanwhile, tears of joy streamed down assistant minister Margaret Wanjiru’s face after the Appellate Court stopped the recount of Starehe constituency votes.

The ruling however does not stop the hearing of the election petition filed by former Sports minister Maina Kamanda.

Stop recount

Judges Samuel Bosire, Emmanuel O’Kubasu and Joyce Aluoch said since Ms Wanjiru only sought to stop the recount and not the entire petition, no one would suffer prejudice if the appeal was allowed.

Former Starehe MP must now lay basis for a recount.

Although Mr Kamanda wanted the appeal dismissed, the judges ruled that he can proceed with rest of witnesses. Mr Kamanda has so far called five witnesses in the case.

Bishop Wanjiru beat Mr Kamanda by 895 votes to win the Starehe seat.

In another petition, an attempt by politician Stanley Livondo to cross-examine Prime Minister Raila Odinga in court was on Friday dismissed by the appeal court.

Judges Philip Tunoi, Samuel Bosire and Daniel Aganyanya ruled that Mr Livondo’s application to have Mr Odinga examined under oath was unsatisfactory.

They said the PNU politician failed to demonstrate why the PM’s oral evidence was valid in his petition.

Mr Livondo went to the Court of Appeal saying a judge of the High Court erred in denying him a chance to cross-examine Mr Odinga to support his case in the petition.

He said had Mr Justice Alnashir Visram given him a chance to question the Lang’ata MP in the dock, it would have helped to determine who was telling the truth in the case.

Whereas Mr Odinga says in his affidavits that he was never served with court papers, the court officials say they served the PM through his guards at his residence in Karen.

The Lang’ata parliamentary loser is being represented by lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria.

Mr Odinga’s lawyer, Ms Julie Soweto Aullo on her part asked the court to dismiss the application saying Mr Livondo failed to produce in court conflicting evidence.

Further, she said the appeal was premature and the trial judge was correct in denying Mr Livondo the said chance.

The case will now proceed at the High Court where evidence on whether Mr Odinga was personally served is still being heard.

Lodge appeal

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula was on Friday given 14 days to appeal against a decision to throw out his application seeking to dismiss a petition challenging his election as Sirisia MP.

Mr Wetang’ula was given one week to file the notice and seven more days to lodge the appeal.

The MP convinced the Judge that it would be unfair to lock him out, for filing it late.

Mr Justice O’Kubasu allowed his application saying the first appeal was dismissed on a technicality.