Joho seeks to have petition thrown out

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has asked a court to strike out an election petition filed against him.

Mr Joho told the court that Mr Suleiman Shahbal filed the petition after the results were published in a gazette notice when that should have been filed soon after the returning officer made the announcement.

Lawyer Mohammed Balala, for Mr Joho, told Mr Justice Fredrick Ochieng’ that the court ought to make a distinction on the words publication, declaration and determination as they appear in Article 39 in respect to election petitions.

Give clear direction

He said each party had a different interpretation of the words and only the court could give a clear direction.

Mr Ahmednassir Abdullahi, for Mr Joho, said Section 76 of the Elections Act and Article 87 of the Constitution, which have different wordings on timelines for which petitions should be filed, were mutually exclusive and only one of these statutes could be validated.

“The two statutes do not make sense when read together,” he said.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission lawyer Sanjeev Khagram said the petition by Mr Shahbal had a fatal irregularity and should be struck out.

Mr Anthony Ndegwa, for Mr Shahbal, said although the petition would have been filed in but he did not have the relevant documents to support his case.

The ruling will be on Thursday.