Poll losers turn courts into new battlegrounds

Courts around the country have turned into the next battlefields for poll losers and those dissatisfied with the way the electoral commission conducted the March 4 General Election.

By on Monday afternoon, nearly 10 petitions had been filed at the High Court in Nairobi with a voter from Taita Taveta seeking orders to quash the election of Mr John Mtuta Mruttu as the county’s first governor.

Ms Sarah Mutile Mutwiwa claims that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) conducted the election of governor amid massive irregularities and refused to listen to complaints raised by other candidates and their agents.

“The returning officer proceeded to declare the results received orally from the constituencies instead of the electronic mechanism provided for by law or through other provided election tally forms,” she says.

She wants the court to quash the decision of the returning officer to declare Mr Mruttu as the winner. She also wants a declaration that the final results of the governorship post contravened provisions of the Constitution arguing that the results were announced without the approval of other candidates after their agents declined to sign the necessary forms.

Ms Mutwiwa wants the court to order for a fresh voting, verification of ballot boxes or re-tallying of all the votes cast in the six constituencies.

The petition follows two others in which Mombasa governor-elect Ali Hassan Joho has been sued by rival Suleiman Shahbal, who is seeking to overturn Mr Joho’s victory.

In Kisumu, the loser in the Siaya governor’s race, Mr William Oduol, has gone to court seeking orders to compel IEBC and Safaricom to provide information that could help him file a petition challenging the election of Mr Cornel Rasanga.

The application will be mentioned tomorrow.

The application filed by Mr Oduol, who lost in the gubernatorial race, could not proceed yesterday because IEBC was yet to present Forms 35, 36 and 38, which were considered critical to the hearing of the case.

Mr Justice Aggrey Muchelule, who is presiding over the case, ordered the electoral commission to provide the relevant documents by tomorrow.

Mr Oduol’s lawyer, Mr Dismas Wakla, told the court that he asked the IEBC, through a letter dated March 7, to supply the relevant documents but had not been provided with the required documents as per the request sent to the commission which is the first respondent in the case.

Mr Wakla also said that Forms 35, 36 and 38 were at the centre of the case which could not proceed without them.

He asked IEBC to provide the documents in good time.

Safaricom lawyer Echesa Willis requested the court to withdraw his client from the matter since they had supplied the documents in question.

Mr Echesa said IEBC was supplied with the documents on March 14 and would only continue in the matter if the petitioner agreed to shoulder the cost of appearing in court.

IEBC confirmed receiving the documents last Friday and requested for three days to go through the papers before tabling them, but the court maintained that the papers had to be presented by tomorrow.

And in Narok, three politicians have sued IEBC to release to them information relating to senate and governor elections in the county.

Mr Ledama Olekina, who vied for the governor’s seat, Mr Andrew Sunkuli and Mr Joseph Musuni who contested the senatorial seat have accused the electoral commission of refusing to give them Forms 35 and 36 from the county’s elections.

They say they require the information to support a petition which they intend to file to challenge the electoral returns for the senate and governor race and the processes that led to those returns.

They also say the returns were not electronically transmitted and IEBC officials denied them Forms 35 and 36.

In Nairobi’s Embakasi South constituency, Mr George Gitobu Njenga has sued the electoral commission seeking an order to quash the declaration of Mr Irsha Mohammed Sumra as MP-elect.

He wants an order that there be a scrutiny and recount of all votes recorded as having been cast in the parliamentary elections in the constituency.

A similar petition was filed by Ms Mary Wangari Mwangi challenging the election of Mr John Omondi Ogutu as the MP for Embakasi East constituency.

The petitions join the list of those filed last week in which former MP Ferdinand Waititu has challenged the declaration of Dr Evans Kidero as winner of the Nairobi governor’s race.

Similarly, Mr Stephen Kariuki, who lost in the Mathare parliamentary seat, has also moved to court to challenge the outcome.

Additional reporting By Kisia Juvenalis and Moses Odhiambo